Liverpool’s goalkeeping department has arguably never been stronger than it is in 2025.
The Reds have three top ‘keepers in the squad, with Alisson Becker and Caoimhin Kelleher ably supported by Vitezslav Jaros.
Although Alisson’s performances have come into question of late, the Brazilian is still arguably the best goalkeeper in the world.
Meanwhile, Kelleher is excellent and Jaros has shown himself to be good enough for a place in the senior Liverpool squad, too. With Giorgi Mamardashvili still to come in, the Reds are in a really good place.
Rewind to before Alisson’s time, though, and things were not quite so rosy. With Jurgen Klopp unconvinced by Simon Mignolet as Liverpool’s number one, he signed Loris Karius in the summer of 2016.
From there a battle played out between Mignolet and Karius, which the German eventually won. Looking back on that competition almost a decade on, Mignolet has given his verdict on who was the better ‘keeper.
Simon Mignolet backs himself against Loris Karius
Karius had a tragic career with Liverpool. Although he showed some good early signs and wasn’t all bad, the 31-year-old will always be remembered for the Champions League final in 2018.
Had Mignolet been playing that night then who knows, Liverpool might have beaten Real Madrid. Instead, Karius’ horror show prompted Klopp to go out and sign Alisson. And the rest is history.
Mignolet was never going to get the better of the Brazilian for the number one spot, but speaking on Ben Foster’s Fozcast podcast, the Belgium says that time has shown him to be a better ‘keeper than Karius.
“It’s normal that Liverpool need two good goalkeepers and you can compete with him,” says the 36-year-old.
“And looking back on it now and how I see my career evolving, and what I did after that, I probably am the better goalkeeper than Loris.”
“Now, it’s not up to me to decide that, and especially not at that moment in time, but I think time told that I was able to be competing with him.
“After when Ali got signed for 60, 70 odd million from Roma, I’m honest enough and smart enough to know that he’s the better goalkeeper and it’s very difficult to compete with him,” Mignolet conceded.
“And I was actually happy to be able to sit on the bench for such a big club and be behind him and to be able to go to the Champions League final and to win that final.
“You learn a lot from him, you can see, you can learn with your eyes, that was not an issue because I was never going to be a 60, 70 odd million goalkeeper and not a Brazilian like he is. So, you accept it then and it’s not an issue at all.”
Mignolet opens up on Alisson quality
As well as looking back on the competition between himself and Karius, Mignolet also spoke at length at just how good Alisson was up close.
“He’s really explosive, it’s unbelievable what a jump he has and how strong he is,” says the Belgium international.
“His reflexes of course and you can see that in his shot-stopping. But because he’s so explosive it’s his shot-stopping and then being able to jump so quickly.
“And secondly, he’s Brazilian, so he doesn’t give a **** to say it that way! So, with his feet he takes a risk and it doesn’t matter and also mentally, he doesn’t care. You see that also with Ederson.”
Mignolet was certainly a better goalie than Karius and although he had his faults as a shot-stopper, he deserves more respect than he gets from the Liverpool fanbase.
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