Caoimhin Kelleher: Who is Liverpool’s young goalkeeper? Will he make a Premier League debut? | Football news

Before we begin, let’s remove the pronunciation. It’s ‘Kwee-Veen’. Caoimhin is the Irish equivalent of the English name Kevin.

What else do we need to know about Liverpool’s latest European debutant Caoimhin Kelleher? And will he stay with the team while Alisson is injured?

On Saturday, the 22-year-old conceded seven when Liverpool under-23s were beaten by Manchester City, but Kelleher kept a clean sheet as Liverpool beat Ajax 1-0 on Tuesday night with Brazilian Alisson. out for up to two weeks for a hamstring injury. .

The Unwitting Porter: Who is Kelleher?

Kelleher, the younger brother of Wrexham defender Fiacre Kelleher, a former Celtic academy defender, was making just his fifth start with the club. Kelleher’s four previous appearances were in national cup competitions, with the last of those being in the FA Cup against Shrewsbury Town last season.

From Cork, Ireland, Kelleher moved to Liverpool in 2015 at the age of 17 from the Irish Ringmahon Rangers despite interest from Aston Villa and Blackburn two years earlier.

Kelleher actually started out as a forward, but played in goal when the Ringmahon U15 team was missing a goalkeeper, and he hasn’t looked back. It was only three years between Kelleher playing his first game in goal and signing for Liverpool.

Surprisingly, he has yet to move on on loan from Liverpool, although they did have Championship interest in January and summer. Instead, Liverpool decided to send Polish under-21 international Kamil Grabara on loan to Danish team AGF Aarhus.

Kelleher has played 10 times for the Republic of Ireland Under-21 national team and was first named to the senior team in November 2018, but has yet to make his first international game.

Kelleher’s former trainer at Ringmahon, Eddie Harrington, explained in 2018 to Cork echo that nothing puzzles the goalkeeper, and that having been a forward himself, he could get into the minds of rivals.

“Nothing puzzles him,” Harrington said of Kelleher, who would score “20 or 30 goals a season” up front. “He will not allow mistakes to affect him.

“He used to tell us that he could read a forward passing because he himself was so good at scoring goals that he almost knew where they were going to put him as such. His feet were excellent.”

Why did you play instead of Adrian?

Klopp’s decision to hand Kelleher a Champions League debut before established number two Adrian was surprising, but the goalkeeper was solid throughout.

In explaining his decision to pick Kelleher, Klopp said it was due to Kelleher’s natural ability with the ball.

Kelleher’s passing accuracy was 71 percent Tuesday night, compared to Adrian’s average of 65 percent in his three Premier League and Champions League appearances this season.

“I really think Adrian has done a fantastic job for us, kept a clean sheet, played everywhere,” Klopp said. “But now we needed Caoimhin Kelleher’s natural ability to play soccer.

“We needed that to put pressure on Ajax, we needed his chips from him in mid-space and this kind of thing.

“He’s also a good blocker. We made that decision, but you never know how they are going to do it. I’m very happy with how calm he was and how good he was.”

“In the end, it’s about keeping the ball out of the net and he did it twice and he did it in an exceptional way. Either he will sleep really well tonight or he will not sleep.”

Will he play in the Premier League?

Next up for Liverpool is Wolves at Anfield at 7.15pm Sunday night, and Kelleher is the favorite to keep his place in a game where Liverpool is likely to have more ball.

It’s clear fans want Kelleher between the sticks on Saturday, too. Adrian’s high-profile mistakes in Alisson’s absence earlier this season and the 2019/20 campaign mean confidence in the Spaniard is low.

But Klopp can do what he and his goalkeeping coach John Achterberg see in training; Klopp has made 24 changes to the starting eleven in the Premier League this season, and strong performances in the Champions League haven’t always had a starting place at the weekend.

Nat Phillips began Liverpool’s win over West Ham in late October, just days after Rhys Williams settled comfortably when Fabinho got injured against Midtjylland, so even with a long list of injuries, Klopp’s starting eleven is a unknown.

But there is apparently no upset on Adrian’s part, as Kelleher revealed Tuesday night that his two teammates were strongly supportive of him.

“I didn’t see Ali yesterday (Monday) because I think he was gone, but I got a text message before the game just to say good luck to me,” he said.

“Adrian was very supportive. He said, ‘I’m with you 100% and supporting you no matter what.’ Getting that from him was very nice of him.”

Kelleher: My teammates make it easy for me

In addition to being confident on the field, Kelleher appeared confident in front of the camera as he praised his teammates for making passing options “easy” on the ball.

Talking to BT sport, He said: “It was incredible for me to debut in the Champions League, and obviously the most important thing was to get the win and the quality.

“To be honest, it’s pretty easy for me, because the players in front of me, when I get the ball, they make easy choices for me, so they make my decision a lot easier.

“We are not here just to participate, we want to push every day and try to play as many games as we can.

“My phone has been jumping since I walked in! Thank you so much for all the support and messages I have been receiving.”

Liverpool fixtures

Saturday, December 5: Wolves (h)

Wed Dec 9: Midtjylland (a)

Sunday, December 13: Fulham (a) – live on Sky Sports

Wed Dec 16: Tottenham (at home)

Saturday December 19: Crystal Palace (a)

Sunday, December 27: West Brom (h) – live on Sky Sports