Liverpool fans were ecstatic at the prospect of unpopular goalkeeper Simon Mignolet surrendering his spot to new signing Loris Karius. However, that joy has now turned to dismay as the German goalkeeper has been ruled out of action for two months with a broken hand.
The optimistic start to Loris Karius’ Reds career has been disrupted by an unfortunate injury which the goalkeeper suffered during their pre-season friendly against Chelsea. The German rushed off his line to deal with a Cesc Fabregas freekick and inadvertently punched teammate Dejan Lovren as he tried to clear the ball, suffering a broken bone in his hand in the process. The injury is expected to keep him out of action for eight to ten weeks.
Karius joined the Merseysiders from Bundesliga club Mainz for £4.7 million. Manager Jurgen Klopp was expected to start the season with his compatriot as his first choice keeper, but the former Dortmund manager has now backed Simon Mignolet to show his quality in Karius’ absence.
“It was only a battle between these two players obviously so now this battle is decided for the next few weeks, 100 per cent,” he said in a press conference, according to FourFourTwo.
“It’s not cool for the boy, it’s not cool for us, but we can’t change it, we have to take it,” he said, speaking of the injury to Karius. “We have another three goalkeepers and everybody knows about the quality of Simon Mignolet so all good. He made a really good impression in the first few days since he’s back in training.”
Simon Mignolet has made 144 appearances for Liverpool in all competitions since joining from Sunderland in 2013. Although he has spent three seasons as the first choice goalkeeper, the Belgian has made some notable errors that have failed to reassure the Reds’ fans of his quality. The contract extension he signed in January sparked fury among Liverpool supporters, who don’t seem to have faith in his qualities.
The 28-year-old Belgian registered 11 clean sheets last season, making an average of 1.53 saves and conceding 1.24 goals per game. However, new signing Loris Karius is far ahead in terms of saves per game at 2.53. The German also has a 96% claim success rate as compared to Mignolet’s 88%, with the latter marginally beating him when it comes to distribution success rate — 62% compared to the Mainz keeper’s 60% (stats courtesy of Squawka).
It remains to be seen if Mignolet can take advantage of the injury to his teammate to establish himself as the first choice heading into the new season.
