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You know all those psychic powers Liverpool players have seemingly found themselves in possession of recently? No? Oh, that stuff was all nonsense yours truly inferred from completely innocuous comments? Yeah anyway, most people have likely already forgotten that Adam Bogdan saved three out of five penalties fired at him in Liverpool's advancement to the 4th round of the Capitol One Cup on Wednesday night, probably because of the brain cell-murdering dullness of the preceding 120 minutes. Or the creeping sadness of Brendan Rodgers' tenure seemingly limping towards its inevitable end. Or all the drinking we all did. Or all those things. Probably all those things.
Given that penalties are usually scored at about an 80% clip, reducing that number to 40% would indicate either meticulous preparation - Pepe Reina was known for studying tape of opposition penalty takers before matches, just in case, and Louis van Gaal famously subbed on penalty specialist Tim Krul before Holland's penalty shootout in the quarter final of last summer's World Cup, to great effect - or the ability to intuitively predict what the shooter is going to do before he does it. AKA psychic powers.
So which is it, Adam?
"There’s method in the madness
"Sometimes you guess right, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t. I guessed the right way and got lucky with three shots. Thankfully we went through."
So. Method. Guessing right and getting lucky. Profit. I hope everybody is taking notes.
Beyond revealing the dark secrets that will surely get him shunned from the clandestine goalkeeping community, the 6'4" stopper talked about the joy of going through to the next round, the rigours of Premier League football, and finally, the relationship between him and first-choice goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet.
"He is fantastic. He came into the dressing room before and after the game and wished me well; I do the same to him every week.
"We know how hard this position is and we have full respect for each other and help each other when we work every day, and also encourage each other as well."
Lifeless on-pitch displays aside, squad morale and camaraderie has never really seemed like much of an issue, with images of grinning, head-tennising players emerging from Melwood on a weekly basis. The courteous rapport between the two contenders for the goalkeeping spot seems yet another example of that intra-squad harmony.
Now, if they could make the fans grin equally wide with some performances and results, preferably quite immediately, that'd be just swell.
