Arne Slot has confirmed one member of Liverpool’s starting XI for their Carabao Cup quarter-final against Southampton on Wednesday night.
The Reds boss is likely to make several changes for the match at St Mary’s, which comes amid a busy run of Premier League fixtures as his side seek to preserve their position at the top of the table.
Alisson Becker has recently made his comeback from two months out injured, starting against Girona and Fulham over the past week, but he’s set to sit out the cup tie against the managerless Saints.
Slot confirms Kelleher start v Southampton
Speaking in his pre-match press conference this morning, Slot was asked if Liverpool fans could expect Caoimhin Kelleher to come back into the starting line-up tomorrow night and simply replied (via Liverpool FC on YouTube): “Yes, we can.”
The 46-year-old added: “Unfortunately for us [because of Alisson’s injury] but good for him, he’s already had quite a lot of minutes. If you make a list of players and the amount of minutes [they’ve had], there will be players with far less playing time than him, so he can look back on the first half of the season for himself as a positive.
“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 has been up-front about his goalkeeping pecking order
It always seemed probable that, once Alisson returned last week, Kelleher would be in line to step in for domestic cup games, something he’s done regularly over the past few years.
The Irishman enjoyed a prolonged run of starts in the absence of our number 1 throughout the autumn and performed superbly, with some pundits even arguing that the 26-year-old ought to keep his place in the team once the Brazilian had recovered from injury.
Slot has been quite up-front about his goalkeeping hierarchy, though, and the Cork native is once again left reliant on cup fixtures and/or another Alisson body blow for first-team minutes at Liverpool.
Kelleher’s national team boss Heimir Hallgrimsson has openly urged the Reds netminder to consider finding a new club if he can’t get regular game-time at Anfield, and with Giorgi Mamardashvili arriving next summer, competition for a starting berth will only intensify.
It’s possible that we mightn’t see too much more of the 26-year-old in an LFC shirt, so let’s be grateful for what he’s done for us already and appreciate him while he’s still on Merseyside. One thing is for sure – we won’t be weakened by him coming in to start against Southampton tomorrow night!
