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It is safe to say that Liverpool have been held back for many years because of their goalkeepers.
Since Pepe Reina’s departure in 2013, five different goalkeepers have tried and failed between the sticks. The likes of Brad Jones, Adam Bogdan and Danny Ward have played only a handful of games while Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius have shared most of the goalkeeping responsibility.
Mignolet made some costly errors in his debut season when Liverpool made an unlikely title challenge, most notably in an away game against Manchester City where his mistake led to Alvaro Negredo’s winner. To put things into perspective, without that goal, Liverpool would have won the title.
The Belgian also made a mistake in the League Cup final in 2016 against Manchester City and the Reds went on to lose the game on penalties after the score was 1-1 at the end of extra time.
When Jurgen Klopp arrived, he signed Loris Karius to provide competition to Mignolet, but the German made some costly errors in goal which forced Klopp to revert to Mignolet.
Over the course of the 2017/18 season, Klopp rotated his two keepers with Loris Karius ultimately being named the undisputed #1. However, two terrible mistakes from Karius cost Liverpool the Champions League title and there could be no coming back from that for Karius.
Liverpool need just a few more additions to their current squad to take them to the next level and one of them has to be a new goalkeeper. With the transfer window now open, Liverpool should target one of these five goalkeepers to bridge the gap between them and their title rivals.
#5. Gianluigi Donnarumma
Aged 19, Gianluigi Donnarumma has already made 125 appearances for AC Milan. That alone is a testament to his quality.
The teenager is earmarked to be the future #1 for Italy and his performances so far suggest he can be Italy’s long-term custodian.
For a Milan side that has been a shadow of its former self, Donnarumma has been a ray of hope in recent seasons. Since making his debut for Milan in 2015, he has kept 34 cleansheets in the Serie A. He made 72 saves in 34 Serie A games in 2017/18.
Signing a keeper like Donnarumma will solve Liverpool’s goalkeeper crisis for years to come. However, the club doesn’t have a good history with his agent Mino Raiola.
AC Milan are running the risk of losing their Europa League spot for violating FFP regulations and the absence of European football could motivate Donnarumma to consider his future in the summer.
Liverpool can offer him the chance to play in the Champions League and also work under a manager renowned for his brilliant work with youngsters.
#4. Bernd Leno
Should Liverpool replace one German goalkeeper who arrived from the Bundesliga with another German goalkeeper from the Bundesliga? That’s a risk worth taking in the case of Bernd Leno.
Unlike Loris Karius, Leno is a goalkeeper who is in Germany’s plans for the FIFA World Cup and that speaks a lot given the plethora of talented goalkeepers Germany has.
The 26-year-old has been linked with a move to clubs like Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Roma in recent weeks and it is clear that there is no shortage of admirers for him.
Leno’s arrival at the big stage was quite spectacular. He replaced the experienced German International, Rene Adler as Bayer Leverkusen’s #1 and kept a cleansheet in his first three Bundesliga games which made him only the third keeper in history to achieve this feat.
When he made his Champions League debut on September 13, 2011, he was the youngest goalkeeper ever to play in a Champions League match!
Jurgen Klopp will know the player well having seen Leno play against his Borussia Dortmund side. If Klopp wants the player, then his connections in the country can make it possible with relative ease.
#3. Alisson Becker
The fact that Alisson has cemented his place as Brazil’s #1 by keeping Manchester City’s Ederson on the bench speaks volumes about the player.
The Roma goalkeeper has been linked with a move to Liverpool for over a year now and the Liverpool fans got to see the Brazilian in action recently when the two teams met in the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League.
However, a big stumbling block for a potential move is the fee Liverpool paid for Mohamed Salah last summer. After the Egyptians record-breaking season and the drastic change in the market following Neymar’s move to PSG, Roma feel they could have got more for Salah. If Liverpool try to sign Alisson, Roma will want to make up for their loss.
That being said, Alisson, who was named in the Champions League squad of the season for 2017/18, will improve the Liverpool team massively. If Liverpool are ready to break the transfer record like they did for Virgil van Dijk and sign Alisson for the rumoured asking price of £70m, then it will be another step in the right direction.
During the 2017/18 Serie A season, Alisson made 92 saves in 34 games with an impressive average of 3.41 saves per goal conceded and a distribution accuracy of 83%.
To put things into perspective, Karis averaged 2 saves per goal in the Premier League this season with a distribution accuracy of 72%.
#2. Thibaut Courtois
A move for Thibaut Courtois will be very difficult to pull off but if Liverpool can sign the towering Belgian, then it would be massive!
Courtois is entering the last year of his Chelsea contract and as things stand, he is not close to signing a new contract. Under these circumstances, Chelsea want to sell the player rather than see him leave for free next summer.
Aged 26, Courtois is yet to reach the peak age for goalkeepers but he already has considerable experience playing at the highest level. He has been Chelsea’s #1 for four seasons now and has won four trophies with the blues including two Premier League titles.
If Liverpool want to sign him, they won’t have to pay as much as they would have to pay for Alisson because the player only has one year left on his contract but Chelsea would do everything in their power to sell the player abroad instead of strengthening one of their rivals.
Despite winning the Golden Glove in 2016/17, Courtois didn’t have a great season this time around but that was the case with most of Chelsea’s squad. Nevertheless, he still kept 15 cleansheets this season in the Premier League.
#1. Jan Oblak
If there is a goalkeeper who can go toe with David De Gea at the moment that’s Jan Oblak.
Atletico Madrid have never had trouble replacing an outgoing goalkeeper. They replaced David De Gea with Thibaut Courtois and then replaced Courtois with Oblak.
However, Oblak has been outperforming his predecessors at the club in an immaculate manner.
Since joining the Spanish club in 2014, Oblak has kept 67 cleansheets in 113 La Liga games! In addition, he has won the Zamora trophy given to the goalkeeper who has the lowest ‘goals-to-games’ ratio in La Liga in the previous three seasons and several other individual honours.
Aged 25, Oblak fits the age group Liverpool have been targeting in recent seasons and he can be the club’s #1 for many years to come.
This season, he kept 21 cleansheets in 34 La Liga games while conceding just 18 goals. He also made 82 saves with a mind-boggling average of 4.56 saves per goal conceded!
The biggest stumbling block for Liverpool if they want to sign the player is his €100 million release clause!
