Michael Mongie explores whether or not injury to Loris Karius could mean that Simon Mignolet is granted a Liverpool career lifeline.
When news broke that Loris Karius had broken his hand Liverpool fans were dismayed. Well, except for my girlfriend who adores Simon Mignolet but then she’s not watching his weak attempts to save shots on goal is she?
With Karius set to miss 6-10 weeks of football we all need to go to the doctor and ask for the most effective blood pressure medicine because it’s likely that we’ll soon see much of what we’ve seen in the past.
When Mignolet signed from Sunderland he came with a brilliant reputation for shot stopping but that’s not surprising when you play for a club who fights relegation year after year. His debut against Stoke City, filled with heroics, is the beginning of an extremely short highlights reel. There are much longer compilations on YouTube of the Belgian’s errors while playing for Liverpool.
However, Karius has suffered a disheartening injury which means we’ll be without the talented German for 6-10 weeks. What that translates to is that we are to put up with Simon Mignolet for up to and possibly beyond 6-10 weeks.
The next 2 and half months could offer an opportunity for Mignolet to further cement his place as second choice goalkeeper or provide Jürgen Klopp with a selection headache. It’s difficult to see the former Sunderland shot-stopper doing enough to warrant a consistent starting place but it would be great if he did.
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Next season will be all about competition to be in the starting lineup and if Mignolet can provide enough reason to convince Klopp to consider benching Karius it can only be good for the side as it will force the German ‘keeper to train harder in an effort to impress.
As much as I don’t want to see Mignolet in goal, it would be really good for the team if he wasn’t awful. Funny that.