Loris Karius’s Liverpool career hasn’t got off to the most positive of starts, with some shaky early performances culminating in poor outings in recent weeks. The Hard Tackle weighs in on the debate and discusses Liverpool’s goalkeeping troubles and how they can be solved
It’s been far from an ideal start to life at Anfield for Loris Karius. Roped in during the summer after an impressive season in the Bundesliga, the 23-year-old was touted to replace Simon Mignolet as Liverpool’s number one choice goalkeeper. However, barring a brief spell of games in November when he managed to claim a couple of clean sheets, it’s been a largely underwhelming debut season so far for Karius.
The German goalkeeper came in for wide criticism for his performance in goal during the Bournemouth game that saw his side throw away a 3-1 lead to eventually lose 4-3 at stoppage time. Among the pundits that slammed him were Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, both of whom held nothing back when it came to critiquing the youngster.
The saga, however, amplified when Karius, in an interview to Sportmail slammed Neville’s comments stating that he doesn’t care about his opinion.
The former Mainz shot-stopper did himself little favour by following up his midweek comments with yet another poor showing against West Ham at Anfield that left even supporters in dismay. It isn’t a catch-22 situation by any means, but Jurgen Klopp needs to sort out his goalkeeping troubles as early as possible if they are to keep Liverpool’s dreams of silverware alive.
The Reds’ deficiencies in between the sticks has cost them many a point in recent years and one might strongly argue, even the league title during the 2013-14 season.
The Hard Tackle seeks to pin-point and discuss where the problem lies for Liverpool and how it can be fixed going forward.
The goalkeeping struggle
Not since Pepe Reina have Liverpool had a world-class goalkeeper in their ranks. The Spaniard, taking over from Jerzy Dudek, did a phenomenal job at the helm of goalkeeping affairs for well over 7 years at the club before a dip in form and quality saw him make his way out to Napoli.
Since then the Reds have worked with the likes of Peter Gulacsci, Alexander Doni, Brad Jones, Simon Mignolet, Adam Bogdan, Danny Ward and Loris Karius, with none of them managing to emulate Reina with respect to their exploits in goal.
It was towards the twilight of Reina’s Anfield career in 2011 that a certain John Achterberg took over the the mantle of goalkeeping coach for the first team having worked with the academy for two years. Since then, the Reds have failed to add to the club’s list of legendary shot-stoppers.
The FSG era marked a culture of spotting raw talents, bringing them to the club and breeding them into world-class prospects. While a number of players have come into the club, not all have bred into world class talents, certainly not goalkeepers.
While the likes of Adam Bogdan, Brad Jones and Alexander Doni simply weren’t cut out for a club of Liverpool’s stature, Peter Gulacsci, who is now working wonders at RB Leipzig, being young never had the chance to make the cut. Amidst all this, it was Simon Mignolet who was earning a fair run in the first team since arriving at the club in 2013. The Belgian may have come from a struggling Black Cats outfit but that by no means devalued his strengths and abilities in goal.
He enjoyed some glowing performances for the Reds but never managed to establish a level of consistency the way David De Gea, Manuel Neuer and Gigi Buffon did on a weekly basis. As a result the 28-year-old has been a constant subject of criticism and has often been pin-pointed as one of the weak points in the team.
While it’d be too early to comment on Loris Karius based on his 11 appearances for the club, the German has produced nowhere near the level of performances that got him voted as the second-best keeper in the Bundesliga.
The importance of a goalkeeper cannot be emphasized enough. Manchester United are prime evidence of the impact a player in between the sticks can have on the final result with David De Gea winning many a game by holding strong guard of the Red Devils goal.
Is it fair to lay the blame on John Achterberg?
Having established Liverpool’s goalkeeping ‘crisis’, we now strut forward to the discussion regarding the Reds’ much-maligned goalkeeping staff led by John Achterberg. It wasn’t just Karius who received criticism for his recent performances, but Achterberg did too.
The respected Dutch coach has been receiving a lot of flak for his inability to account for Mignolet’s shortcomings and failure to bring out the best in Karius.
Like any other player, Mignolet had his own short-comings, notably his ball distribution and occasional lapse in concentration. However three years on, the Belgian has made little growth and progress in that regard to help him stake a claim for a permanent spot in between the sticks.
A brilliant shot-stopper, there’s little questioning his work ethic and hard work on the pitch, but there has to be a concerted effort to correct his mistakes and as of what we have seen three years on, there is little evidence of that.
Although, competition for places with Karius is seemingly bringing the best out of Mignolet of late, who has delivered some decent performances whenever called upon. That said, there is still much room for improvement for Liverpool should they continue to remain in the race for the Premier League title.
Achterberg joined the Liverpool Academy staff during Rafa Benitez’s reign in 2009 after 11 years of service to Tranmere Rovers and more than 300 appearances.
It was Kenny Dalglish who promoted him to the role of first-team goalkeeping coach in the summer of 2011 and he’s retained that position under both Brendan Rodgers and Klopp. And if there was any dearth in quality of inputs offered by Achterberg, he wouldn’t be at Liverpool given how much power and influence Klopp is exercising on the proceedings at Melwood.
There are seemingly no complaints from the players he has worked with either, with most of them having high praises to sing of the Dutch coach for his valuable analysis and inputs.
So given how there are little complaints from behind the scenes, it is worth pondering whether the criticism directed towards him is warranted. Granted he has to take part of the blame for lack of progress with Mignolet, but to point fingers at him for Karius, who is still acclimatizing to the English league would be premature and harsh.
Excessive criticism doing Karius no favours
Liverpool’s dominating style of football has meant their opponents get far lesser shots at goal than they do. So in such games their opponents must maintain utmost sharpness in terms of converting their chances.
What many forget is that the same goes with a goalkeeper too. Karius, in many games, was hardly called into action because of the domination his side were exercising on the game.
On the few occasions that the opposition attack on the counter, the German will have to be on his toes and be prepared to deliver the goods. That is precisely what Karius has failed to do in recent weeks. Against Bournemouth and West Ham, the Reds had given away relatively fewer chances but their opponents made all of it count.
It is easy to judge the quality of a keeper making a high number of saves while being in the thick of the action, but the demands of a keeper on the other end of the spectrum are far higher. To maintain the concentration when called upon for the few seconds out of a 90 minute game is a tough ask, especially for a keeper still finding his way around a new league set-up.
That said, sufficient blame should go to the defence as well for the number of goals conceded and simply singling out the goalkeeper as a scapegoat isn’t doing the player’s confidence any good.
All Karius needs at this point in his Anfield career is time and support, which as we have observed in recent weeks he is getting in abundance from Jurgen Klopp.
The combination of the two go a long way in impacting a player’s career, a certain David De Gea can testify to that. The Spaniard suffered identical problems upon his arrival from Atletico Madrid in 2012, and we all know how he is faring now.
Into his debut season at Anfield, the level of expectations on Karius are understandably high given how he was touted to take over the role of first-choice goalkeeper following an impressive Bundesliga campaign.
The burden of expectation is trouble enough for a young goalkeeper like him, so the kind of scrutiny and criticism he is drawing from fans and media of late will do him no favours. It’s only a matter of time before we begin to see shades of the man who did wonders with FSV Mainz in the Bundesliga that earned him his £4.7 million move to Liverpool in the summer of 2016.
