Loris Karius Set To Start Against Spurs

After a generous heaping of criticism following his performances in the past month, Simon Mignolet will likely sit out Saturday’s game against Tottenham. Loris Karius, whose hair is so glorious that I genuinely have trouble spelling his name correctly (G-Lorious Karius flows more naturally), will likely be starting in his stead.

Karius was dropped from the first team in early December after the Neville brothers (the ex-Manchester United players and current pundits, not the band) criticised his performance against Bournemouth and West Ham. The 23-year old has performed well (comparatively) in Liverpool’s recent Cup ties against Plymouth, Southampton, and Wolves, however, and will likely be one of a few changes that Jürgen Klopp makes ahead of Saturday’s fixture.

“We have to show a reaction [to the string of bad results. That’s how it is. We are causing [ourselves] problems,” Klopp said, after last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Hull. Mignolet made a particularly egregious mistake with Alfred N’Diaye’s goal, and Klopp admitted that while Mignolet “was not alone around the goal, he had it nearly in his hands so he cannot ignore this.”

On the one hand, Mignolet shouldn’t be completely sidelined for making a mistake (even if it was an awful one). On the other hand, it’d be really nice to see Karius bring his steadiness from the Cup games to the League. Either way, there’s definitely a problem that Klopp has to fix, and if this works, I’m not going to be complaining.