Jurgen Klopp appears to have already made a decision on Liverpool’s goalkeeper for the Carabao Cup final.
The Reds qualified for a third such cup final under Klopp last night. Having taken a 2-1 first-leg lead to Craven Cottage, Liverpool comfortably registered the 1-1 draw needed to take them to Wembley.
With the game still a month away, the manager won’t be making too many decisions on his team just yet. For one thing, the Reds will be hoping Mohamed Salah recovers in time. However, speaking in his post-match press conference last night, Klopp suggested that Caoimhin Kelleher is one man who can definitely expect to be playing against Chelsea.
“Caoimhin is a top, top, top goalie,” raved the Liverpool boss. “And when Ali is fit he doesn’t have a lot of games, so I want to give him desperately the opportunity to play.
“It’s important for development and he deserves it on top of that because he is always there. He’s giving absolutely everything, like Adrian, by the way, he’s the same. They deserve moments and this competition I told Ali before the season, no, two years ago it was already like that.”
Kelleher gets the nod
Although Klopp doesn’t outright say that Kelleher will be playing in these quotes, the inference is absolutely clear. It will be the Irishman in goal at Wembley.
As the manager suggests, this won’t be news to either Caoimhin or indeed Alisson. This is the way it was two years ago as well.
Back then, some had perhaps wondered whether Klopp would get cold feet and go with his No.1 for the final. Especially with the opponents being a strong Chelsea side.
But Jurgen stuck with his back-up stopper and Kelleher turned out to be the hero on the day. He’ll no doubt have his eyes on the same outcome this time, too.
As Klopp also said post-game, the Ireland international was looking delighted at the full-time whistle. He’s ready to add another trophy to the collection.
“I don’t know exactly how many games he [Kelleher] played now already but with the Europa League it’s a few,” said the manager. “That’s how it works. He was really happy after the game today. He’s not smiling a lot, at least when I’m around, but after the game I could see he was really happy about qualifying again and having the chance again to win another trophy in his career. It would be a big one.
“But we all know it’s Chelsea and they probably want to put history right after playing us twice two years ago. It’s just great.”
As he looks to potentially leave Liverpool this summer, another final appearance will be one more string to Kelleher’s bow.
He may have only played 33 senior games for the Reds, but his 34th will probably be his second cup final. That’s not bad going. Whether Liverpool end up winning or not, that might just add a couple of million pounds to the 25-year-old’s value. All eyes on Wembley.
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