Emre Can Confident in Loris Karius

Loris Karius has earned the trust of Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, overtaking Simon Mignolet for the number one spot in the league. With that position, however, comes plenty of scrutiny, and after a few underwhelming performances, Karius has been on the receiving end of some criticism.

One person who remains on his side is his fellow countryman Emre Can. About his friend, Can said, “He’s a great lad and a very, very good goalkeeper. It’s a little bit different here from the Bundesliga but he’s well aware of that. I think he’s been doing very well so far and the fact that he kept a clean sheet recently against Manchester United is a big thing.

“It is the same if an outfield player scores a goal in that it helps your confidence. If a goalkeeper doesn’t concede, that will help him.

“As soon as I saw him (after he signed for Liverpool), I said that he just had to play with the confidence that he played with in the Bundesliga, because I saw a lot of his matches with Mainz and could only say positive things about him. I saw that he’s a very good goalkeeper.

“Our attacking football starts for the goalkeeper. We are a team that wants to play and Loris is a good footballer with the ball at his feet so that’s very important to us.”

Karius has begun special training with John Achterberg in order to lessen the learning curve necessary for goalkeepers adjusting to the Premier League. He’ll have his next chance to prove his stuff this Sunday when Liverpool host Watford in the last match before the November international break.