Caoimhin Kelleher Admits That It’s “Difficult” Not Playing

Caoimhin Kelleher, once again reminded the football world that Liverpool, as manager Jurgen Klopp has claimed, just might have the “best no. 2 goalkeeper in the world” within their ranks.

The Irishman was the penalty shootout hero for the fourth time in his short career at Anfield, producing three brilliant stops to send the Reds past Derby County into the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.

His club record-breaking exploits in becoming the first Liverpool keeper to claim four penalty shootout wins, were quickly followed up by a timely announcement of his return to the Irish national team for the first time since the summer.

Clearly a talent, the question for the Liverpool hierarchy is how to keep ahold of their backup goalkeeper, who at 23 years old, will surely be eager to do more than simply watch no.1 Alisson Becker be world-class week in, week out (as fun as that might sound).

The Irishman alluded to the balancing act between wanting to play and learning from the best:

“I approach every day like I’m going to play. I have to be ready to play—anything can happen anytime,” he said speaking to the club website.

“I’ve trained with the goalie group every day, it’s a really good group to work with so I enjoy going in every day and trying to work hard.

“At the same time as well it’s difficult not getting the games, but like I say the more we do well in cup competitions like this the more game time I can hopefully get.”

Liverpool supporters will be hoping that another deep run into at least one of the domestic cups will allow Kelleher the chance to keep fresh and engaged in what many will want to see as part of a lengthy career at Anfield.