Jurgen Klopp makes his decision on which goalkeeper will start the Carabao Cup Final in February
Jurgen Klopp is blessed to have several solid goalkeepers to select from each game and has now confirmed which of them will be starting against Chelsea at Wembley.
Alisson Becker, Caoimhin Kelleher and Adrian have all started games and kept clean sheets in the Carabao Cup this season and so all may have a hope of getting the nod in the final.
The manager has previously said that this is the Irishman’s competition but when our No.1 was selected for the first-leg against Arsenal, many thought this could go out the window at the business end of the tournament.
Speaking in his pre-Crystal Palace press conference, the German said: “Caoimhin will play, if he is fit, as a football manager you have to consider obviously a lot of things.
“We consider Caoimhin as an outstanding goalie – not a good goalie, an outstanding goalie – and we want to keep him here.
“To keep him here you need to make sure of a few things; different games he will get, before a season you think about it, you talk about it and it’s all about performing of course.
“If he wouldn’t have performed on the level he performed when he played I would maybe see it differently, but he shows that he deserves all the trust and faith we have in him. That’s the situation.
“My idea in this moment is that Caoimhin will play. Let’s see until then but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t do it, to be honest, because Caoimhin deserves it. He brought the team there.
“Last week against Arsenal I had to explain, I understood it like I had to explain, to Caoimhin why he was not playing.
“I usually do not do that, I do not explain to Caoimhin why he is not playing in the Premier League or whatever, but it was his competition and I thought Ali needs the game because of lacking rhythm after COVID and all these kind of things.
“And what I really liked was that Caoimhin was not like, ‘Oh yeah, I understand’, he was like, ‘What? Why?’ so he matures in all departments and that’s good, that’s absolutely good. That is exactly the goalie we wanted.
“I said it before that it is really a John Achterberg project, I have to say, because when I came here there were not all the people in the club thinking, ‘Caoimhin Kelleher will be the next one.’ There was one person and that was John and here we go.
“That’s a goalie who, if you have to buy it, that’s pretty expensive. So we have now the best in the world and a really, really good one. That’s a good situation.”
It was an in depth response by the 54-year-old but it’s a very fair one too and the respect he has for our 23-year-old stopper is immense, which must give him a huge confidence boost.
If all things go to plan, the Cork-born ‘keeper will be between the sticks as we try and clinch our next piece of silverware.
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