Caoimhin Kelleher will return to the Liverpool starting lineup against Southampton in the Carabao Cup quarter-final and Arne Slot has summed up the scale of the task the Republic of Ireland stopper has acting as Alisson’s No.2
Arne Slot claims Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher has “one of the most difficult jobs in football” being understudy to Alisson.
Slot will bring Kelleher back for Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at Southampton in what will be his 13th appearance of the season. Alisson has only made 10 because of hamstring and thigh problems and Kelleher has helped keep Liverpool’s quest for Premier League and Champions League glory on track.
Liverpool will finally let Kelleher leave in the summer when Giorgi Marmadashvili arrives from Valencia and Slot hopes he will not have to use the Republic of Ireland No 1 as much in the second half of the campaign. “It’s one of the most difficult jobs in football if the first goalkeeper is always available because you work for the whole season, and you hardly ever have a chance to play because you normally don’t come on 10 or 15 minutes before the end,” said the Reds head coach.
“He’s, unfortunately for us, but good for him, already played quite a lot of minutes. I think if we make a list of players of the amount of minutes, there will be players that have far less playing time than him.
“I think he can look back on the first half of the season for himself as a positive first half of the season. We as a club, of course, hope that all the players will be available for the second half of the season so he will not make the amount of minutes that he made in the first half.
“But we are really fortunate to have such a great second goalkeeper, that, if we need him, he’s able to do as well as he’s done.”
Slot plans to give Federico Chiesa some minutes after the Italy forward returned to make the bench for Fulham. Chiesa has only made three appearances – the last against West Ham in this competition in September – and Slot is keen to ease him in gently because his injury nightmare has continued at Anfield.
“It’s definitely a moment where he can get minutes,” said Slot. “The amount of minutes is a question mark. You cannot expect him to play 90, especially at this level where the intensity is so high because he has been out for five or six months now.”
Slot wants to rest the likes of skipper Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Mohamed Salah, but his options in defence are restricted because the suspended Andy Robertson joins Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley on the sidelines. Kostas Tsimikas could figure and Slot says he may turn to his kids, who played such a key part in Liverpool’s final win over Chelsea in February.
“I’m aware we only have four defenders available, probably ones that have started a lot of times will not play 90 minutes for sure or maybe not at all,” he said. “It’s going to be either academy players, who will get playing time, or players who nobody would expect to see playing.”
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