Caoimhin Kelleher made his Premier League debut against Wolves on Sunday. The Irishman got a strange kind of compliment after the game, too.
No one could have seen Caoimhin Kelleher facing Wolves a week ago and yet he made his Premier League debut yesterday.
The 22-year-old played well, too, keeping his second consecutive clean-sheet between the sticks. The first came against Ajax, of course, but Kelleher arguably played even better here.
He was comfortable with the ball at his feet and made several decent passes. Kelleher pulled off a fine save in the first half, too, and never really looked troubled.
He appears to be a natural and in that sense, got a great kind of ‘compliment’ from his manager after the game.
Natural
The compliment comes in what Jurgen Klopp didn’t say – or at least, didn’t have the chance to.
Kelleher simply wasn’t one of the main talking points in Klopp’s post-match discussion, as seen here on Liverpoolfc.com. The 22-year-old just didn’t come up as a key discussion.
The fact he went through a game, kept a clean-sheet, and was so much a part of the furniture is quite remarkable. This was his Premier League debut, after all.
When was the last time someone debuted and wasn’t a prominent part of the discussion afterwards? It’s often the major talking point.
Look, this isn’t a sign that Kelleher was outstanding or is about to rival Alisson Becker. But it does show how comfortable he looked.
He played well, looked good, and that wasn’t notable. It’s a great sign, especially compared with how often we’d talk about Adrian post-his performances.
Or even pre-Alisson’s arrival. The days of Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius brought about near-constant goalkeeper discussion.
In that sense, not talking about Kelleher is a real breath of fresh air.
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