Jamie Carragher led the criticism of Loris Karius following yesterday’s 4-3 loss to Bournemouth in which the German was at fault for two goals.
The 23-year-old was heading into the game on the back of consecutive clean-sheets, but his run of good form abruptly ended on the south coast…
He should have saved Bournemouth’s second and parried straight into the feet of Nathan Ake for their winner.
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The online reaction was brutal, in fairness – with Liverpool’s 15 game unbeaten run ended.
“It’s nowhere near good enough from the goalkeeper [for Fraser’s goal],” Carragher told Sky Sports. “This goalkeeper is yet to convince me – in any game – that he’s of the required standard.
“The seven or eight games he has played, and I know it’s still early days and who knows how he will do over the next two or three years, but it has to be a massive improvement from him.
“He hasn’t done anything yet in those games to impress me.”
“It’s a shocking mistake [for the winner],” Carragher continued. “Going back over the last three or four years, is it to do with the goalkeeper?
“Now and again you need your goalkeeper to make a save. I know he made a decent save from Benik Afobe but when you come under pressure you need your goalkeeper.
“It’s no coincidence Liverpool have fallen apart over the last two or three years. I’ve said before Simon Mignolet is not good enough.”
Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp though played down our former centre-back’s concerns, sarcastically suggesting he’s pretty sure Carragher made mistakes throughout his Liverpool tenure too.
“No concern; no problem,” Klopp told the Telegraph. “If you make mistakes you get criticised. That’s what happens in life. I’m sure people criticised Jamie Carragher in his career. The last goal was not easy for a goalkeeper. It says nothing about him as a goalkeeper. It happens.”
Naturally, Klopp is going to defend his player, but it’s also undeniable that Karius was atrocious yesterday and played a big part in the loss.
Still, he’s young and will improve. It takes time for keepers to adapt to new leagues, and the defeat to Bournemouth was actually Karius’s first at Liverpool.
We’ve seen enough good things to suggest he’ll come good eventually.