Young German midfielder Emre Can has launched a staunch defence of Loris Karius, the goalkeeper we signed this summer to replace Simon Mignolet…
While the long-serving Belgian began the season in the team, Jurgen Klopp soon brought in Karius once the 23-year-old regained fitness following a summer injury.
Karius though has struggled early on, showing signs of indecision and nerves. His communication with the back-four doesn’t seem natural yet either (understandable) and there’s been more than a few shaky moments.
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Can though is confident his countryman will come good.
“He’s a great lad and a very, very good goalkeeper. It’s a little bit different here from the Bundesliga but he’s well aware of that,” the former Bayer Leverkusen man told the Echo. “I think he’s been doing very well so far and the fact that he kept a clean sheet recently against Manchester United is a big thing.
“It is the same if an outfield player scores a goal in that it helps your confidence. If a goalkeeper doesn’t concede, that will help him.
“As soon as I saw him (after he signed for Liverpool), I said that he just had to play with the confidence that he played with in the Bundesliga, because I saw a lot of his matches with Mainz and could only say positive things about him. I saw that he’s a very good goalkeeper.
“Our attacking football starts for the goalkeeper. We are a team that wants to play and Loris is a good footballer with the ball at his feet so that’s very important to us.”
Due to Liverpool dominating games recently, Karius hasn’t actually had an awful lot to do.
But for big sides, it’ll be one or two moments per game that define a keeper – as well as his ability to play out from the back. Karius has good feet, but nothing yet to suggest he’s visibly changed our style of play.
Still, Can’s right in that he deserves our support. Hopefully Sunday will see only our second clean-sheet of the Premier League campaign.