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The process of Simon Mignolet's arrival at Liverpool and Pepe Reina's subsequent departure was a complicated one, with the club initially asserting there would be competition before sending the Spanish goalkeeper to Napoli on a season-long loan. Reina felt hard done by, the club felt the need to cover themselves in the event Reina's flirtations with Barcelona paid off, and in the end nobody was sure what had actually happened.
However it shook down, evidence through the fall and winter indicates that Brendan Rodgers was more than justified in moving Reina along and bringing Mignolet aboard, as the Belgian has had a terrific first season to this point. With the club as a whole looking to push on into the second half, their number one is also hopeful that he'll be able to replicate his fine form:
"I want to keep going and work hard in training to make sure I keep doing what I'm doing. I want to look back on my season not at the halfway point, but at the end. There's still a long way to go before we achieve our objectives; it's too early to talk about what has been or what's going to happen. It's after the season when we'll assess that.
"If you arrive at a new club, you always have to settle in. Obviously that penalty save on my home debut at Anfield made things a lot easier, especially as a goalkeeper, because you don't have many moments to show yourself to the crowd. That was one to remember and boosted my confidence, starting my season off really well."
Mignolet's gone on from there to make one spectacular save after another; he was rightly credited with saving a number of points in Liverpool's early season run of 1-0 victories, and he's continued to do so as the season's gone on. His display against Everton--one in which the visitors still conceded three--was among the better Liverpool goalkeeping performances we've seen in years, and he continues to impress despite the overblown reaction to goals let in at Manchester City and Chelsea.
At 25 years old, it's easy to see Simon Mignolet in Liverpool's goal for years to come, and as long as he manages to continue to show the type of form he's had so far, that's an exciting prospect.
