There are two major reactions from Saturday night’s painful Champions League final loss to Real Madrid.
1 – Ramos’ da sells Avon
2 – Everything else is Karius’ fault
Liverpool can’t do anything about the former, but the latter they are in full control of. If decisions were made via Twitter poll, Loris Karius would be gone, bagged, tagged and sold to the highest bidder by end of day on Sunday.
Let’s say that you got your wish. Karius is gone.
THE DAY AFTER:
What next? Jurgen Klopp, Michael Edwards and co would be onto the business of finding a replacement. Replacing a goalkeeper from the top defence in the Premier League since his promotion ahead of Simon Mignolet, replacing a goalkeeper with the most clean sheets in the Champions League who also happens to suit Jurgen Klopp’s unique high-press and preferably under the age of 27.
That sound you hear is Michael Edwards gulping air while his laptop fan starts to whir.
Then, when you’ve found us a ‘keeper, you must place it here beside Adam Bogdan, only slightly taller so you get the two-level effect…
Is Karius impossible to replace, clearly that’s not the case, but how far are we willing to stretch ourselves for a marginal gain? What assurances do we have that the next number-one will be the one? Roma’s Alisson fits the bill and would be as safe a bet as any, but we showed in the Champions League semi’s that he’s by no means impenetrable and he’s rumoured to have a £70m price tag. Atletico’s Oblak can turn common metals into gold, but conflicting reports have him either with pen in hand or already having signed a new deal with Madrid, bumping his buyout to a hefty €175m.
Remember for a moment that Liverpool paid 5 million for Loris Karius. Five.
SHOPPING AT ASDA:
The next shelf down would take bravery of a different kind. Milan’s Donnarumma has long been considered a top prospect, but this year he’s had more errors leading to goals than any other ‘keepers in Serie A. Alban Lafont of Toulouse is thought to be the next best thing, but is a raw teenager and are Liverpool looking for another project at this point?
Jasper Cillessen has struggled for time in Barcelona, but what would we be getting in a former Ajax ‘keeper who has sat on the bench for the better part of the last two seasons?
You get the idea.
Fairly quickly you’re left with the prospect of welcoming back Simon Mignolet or paying money for Jack Butland that could go for attacking depth or a centre-back instead.
Getting rid of Loris Karius is easy, there are sure to be takers. Replacing him in the real world and not on FootballManager is a difficult path with few guarantees.
Loris Karius made two spectacular errors against Real. There’s no changing that at this point. He was elbowed in the head by the dastardly Sergio Ramos just before pitching a strike onto Benzema’s foot. What to make of that, I don’t know, but I am sure that Karius has been one of our standout players during this Champions League run especially at times when things started to get a little frayed at the back.
Karius is not world-class and that has to be the aim at every position for Liverpool’s recruitment team. But, when you’re talking about a tiny group of players that fit our style and can also make saves at a rate better than Karius, just be prepared for a lengthy, arduous and costly search.
Why not just get in a seasoned keeper for a season or two to bring Karius along, or why hasn’t Klopp start to bring Danny Ward along he seemed a good prospect when he went out on loan.
Karius is not the goalie for a team with big aspirations.We have known throughout that he was not the answer so what happened in Kiev was not completely unexpected.The Manager must take some blame for this Karius should not have been the number one goalie the team should have brought in someone in the winter window.Going fwd a goalie is a must if you want to taken serious.Its not all down to Klopp but Edwards needs to act responsibly and address the goalkeeping issue.
karius is klopp s choice
Get rid of our keeper coach John Achterberg. He has ruined every goalkeeping prospect we have had at the club. How mignolet has made little to no prospect in 5 years at LFC astounds me. It is no coincidence that all our keepers have become error prone when dealing with crosses and duels since Achterberg worked in the first team!!!
Karius did not make any mistakes in the final, what he did was deliberate. Yes, he is a match fixer. The bookies predicted a 3-1 scoreline before the game and when i saw what Karius did to our team, it all made sense to me.
Selling Karius? Please i would give him away for free or had him investigated. He can’t be anywhere near our club from now on, the author make it seems like replacing Messi when all we are doing is to replace a match fixer who occasionally doubles up as a semi decent keeper.
God goodness, this man single handedly cost us a final
I agree with Chan.
He was bought!
The 1st goal is “impossible” for a half decent league 2 goal keeper. He is too good for this to be a mistake.
The 2nd (after taking the 2st into account), he pulls his hands away in order to NOT save the shot!!
The 3rd, i have watched 100 times because it’s being sent around on media as a joke.
1stly if he had closed his eyes and stood still, it would have but him square in the chest and not been a goal.
But look at him from the view of acting… it is a clear deliberate act. He wanted it to go in and make it look dramatic.
Why are his legs in the air and him falling? Why are his heels up?
Have you EVER seen a goalkeeper catch or punch a ball when not running forward having their heels up in the sky?
Any child knows to fake a dramatic fall you need to lift your heels up. (Kind of like how Ramos lifts his heels up when someone almost kicks him to simulate a dive and get out players yellow carded).
All 3 goals were fixed.
How this filth can ever look at a tram mate or himself without disgust again I will never know!
Look at his face in replays over and over… He has no remorseful emotion until way after the match when he eventual fakes an apology.
He kept grinning.
He couldn’t even fake a sad look so he kept covering his face with his shirt to NOT give his pathetic acting away. Then when it drops down there is still no emotion no hurt no remorse.
He is a great goal keeper!
He has been incredible and you say, after watching the semi final I wouldn’t take Alisson over him.
He is too good to be capable of at least 2 of these errors if u say that if he didn’t pull his hands away from the ball whether he wouldn’t save it.
But can you EVER trust him again?
Was Grobelaar guilty of accepting bribes for match fixing? Are you telling me that where everytime a game is advertise there are gambling/ betting odds that fixing doesn’t exist??
I am saying it was no mistake. He is a great goalkeeper. And that’s why I can never trust him ever!
I would rather have a goalkeeper who makes mistakes and can learn and grow rather than a goalkeeper where every time our team is losing that I wonder if he is being paid to throw us in the dumps or not.
Every Liverpool player tweets about Liverpool a few times and YNWA.
This is the ONLY player who never tweets about LFC or YNWA. Always about his self image and looking pretty.
I dont think this guy gives a hoot about LFC and would sell us out with a sniff! And he has done so
Duane, you are completely right. What i did say earlier is that i play in goal myself and i am very much a social player. I can swear on my late mother’s grave that anyone, just anyone who ever know the basic’s of goalkeeping would not make those mistakes. This filth, did it TWICE.
I heard he now receives death threats. Usually i am very against this kind of behavior but this time, i secretly hopes someone actually carries it out. Yes, i know its wrong but for a match fixer who single handedly delivered the title to our rivals and betrayed all his team mates and fans, hmm.
I hope Karius leaves while he still can, before things gets really ugly for him.
As for Klopp, his stubborness had again caused us a title, this the the biggest one there is and more telling for him, completely sold out by his hand picked keeper, someone who we all told him was not good enough from day one.
Would Klopp ever learn? I am not so optimistic based on past history, at least Pep has a learning bone in him.
Wow, i still can’t get over this, LFC for the first time, sold out by a match fixer in a European Cup Final.
I love these comments, always a conspiracy. Clearly, we all know how to play professional football and are contracted as a goalkeeper. He made mistakes. ALL GOALKEEPERS DO THAT! It’s unfortunate that it happened in that game but I have seen NO ONE who has no mistakes in their game. Keep him, head up, move forward. Maybe Ward will get a run, I don’t mind that but none of the prospects currently give decent value for money.
Jesse, what Mignolet does in past games were mistakes, no conspiracies, he is just not a very good keeper.
What Karius did, TWICE, in a CL final is not a mistake. In the real world and not those fantasy kind where ppl are perfect, humans can be bought, especially with money.
I am not sure why some fans are so afraid for Karius to be investigated he did not conspire to sell the game. In other countries, if a player plays a game like this, investigation would be the first order of business.
I did not say he didn’t conspire to lose the game. What I said was sometimes it’s not always a conspiracy. Sometimes people mess up. So his mistakes happened. Time to move on from it.
These comments are hilarious if it wasn’t so embarrassing to share a team with some of the ‘fans’ on the comments section
Karius was ‘bought’ LMAO.
Honestly guys, have a word with yourselves
Karius should stay – I have no problem with him for next season as I had when he took over from Mignolet
At the time I thought Mignolet was the better shot stopper but Karius allows our defence to play properly.
City have seen the same thing – buy a goalkeeper to suit the team play and chances are the qualities they bring do not include being the best shot stopper – otherwise they would be hands down the best goalkeepers on the plant. Only one keeper can adequately play as Klopp and Pep require and that’s Neuer. Anybody else comes with flaws and usually for the likes of Bravo, Ederson, Karius this means not being top level short stoppers
Young goalkeeper 1st CL final, probably 1st ever cup final – makes 2 mistakes leading to a 3-1 loss
See, the summary doesn’t sound as dramatic as Karius being a plant and getting paid to make 2 mistakes by the genius fans that unfortunately follow the same team as I do
Since Karius played instead of Mignolet we have been 2nd best defence in the league or something close to that – this improvement started before VVD arrived.
Did Karius show he was a lousy shot stopper before, or was his final totally out of context? He showed he makes mistakes – beaten at the near post by Sane etc
But, coming out for crosses – he’s better. Coming out of his box to close the gap behind the defence – he’s better
So unless we get Neuer any other goalkeeper will have their faults – Allison disappointed at Anfield in the Brazil game (and shipped 5 goals the previous time). Oblack is great in a Mignolet sort of way, ie shot stopping but doesn’t come out the way Klopp and Pep want their GK to play
And we want to double the goalkeeping record for either of these 2 flawed players?
For the record, overall I think both are a bit better than Karius but if you’re asking to double the record for a goalkeeper then I’d expect a player that can play as Klopp desires and I personally would put that money to an upgrade on an outfield player
Gives Karius next season and I think he’d do fine overall in the league. But of course whilst we have fans like Chan and Duane there’s a great possibility that any cofidence built up over the summer would evaporate as soon as he concedes next summer unfortunately
YNWA eh?