Caoimhin Kelleher DESPERATE to shake off nickname given to him by Jurgen Klopp | OneFootball

Much has been made of Liverpool’s goalkeeping situation this year.

Alisson is the undoubted No.1, yet has already missed games through injury and seems to be set to miss more after suffering a hamstring injury against Crystal Palace at the weekend.

Caoimhin Kelleher replaced Alisson for 26 games in all competitions last season. After promising showings the season before that, in which former head coach Jurgen Klopp referred to him as “the best number 2 [goalkeeper] in the world”, Kelleher made a name for himself.

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These performances led to a desire from Kelleher to start full-time, resulting in him requesting a move away from Liverpool. This wouldn’t work for the club, however, as they had no other established backup, and so they rejected a bid from Nottingham Forest for the Irish international.

The saga gets even more tricky when you consider that Liverpool signed Georgian shot-stopper and hero of Euro 2024 Giorgi Mamardashvili on a delayed deal. The signing is confirmed, with Kelleher aware of the keeper coming in, but he won’t join the squad until the start of next season.

What are Kelleher's thoughts?

This has, understandably, not sat well with Kelleher and he has made his intentions clear. When he was asked about the “best number 2 in the world” comments for talkSPORT Daily ahead of the past weekend’s clash with Palace, Kelleher replied:

“It's probably not a tag I want. I want to be playing week in, week out and be that number one.”

Kelleher cut a more determined figure than when previously discussing the situation over the last international break.

“At the moment the situation for me is I'll get these opportunities and I need to do well when I do get the opportunities and play well,” he acknowledged. “That's kind of my main focus obviously. When I do get that chance to come in and play well.

“It's important that I play week in, week out now, get that number one position and just show everyone that I'm capable of being a number one and I can play week in, week out and I'm good enough to play week in, week out.” Kelleher continued,.

“I feel I have the quality to play well, whenever I'm needed, even if that means I've not played a game for a few weeks I can come in and still show my quality and do well. So I think that's obviously the most important part to be ready whenever called upon.”

Kelleher performed admirably in his two starts so far this season, making six saves against Bournemouth - including an athletic goalline clearance - and followed it up with two in the League Cup against West Ham.

He will almost certainly face an extended run in the team should Alisson be kept out for any significant time period. An illness on Saturday meant that Liverpool were forced to hand Vitězslav Jaroš his first-team debut.

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