Jurgen Klopp made a unique piece of Liverpool history before a ball had even been kicked against Sheffield United tonight.
The German welcomed the Blades to Anfield as the Reds attempted to return to the top of the Premier League, after Arsenal leapfrogged Liverpool with a 2-0 win over Luton Town on Wednesday.
However – even before Stuart Attwell sounded his whistle to start the match – Jurgen Klopp found himself sat in an exclusive club alongside none other than Sir Kenny Dalglish…
Jurgen Klopp joins Sir Kenny Dalglish in unique Liverpool club
Well, this is a fascinating situation.
Liverpool have needed to rely on Caoimhin Kelleher in the business end of the 2023/24 campaign, after Alisson Becker suffered a serious hamstring injury back at the start of February.
The Republic of Ireland international has been fantastic for the Reds, memorably making a number of impressive stops as Liverpool defeated Chelsea 1-0 in the Carabao Cup final.
Kelleher has now racked up 24 appearances in Alisson’s absence – the same amount of appearances the Brazil international accumulated before his injury.
In handing the Liverpool No.62 his 24th appearance of the season, Klopp joined Dalglish in an exclusive two-man club.
Not since the 1988/89 campaign, when the 73-year-old handed Bruce Grobbelaar and Mike Hooper 28 and 25 appearances respectively, have two goalkeepers played that many games each for Liverpool in a single season.
It was Michael Reid – Football Data Editor for OptaJoe – who shared the statistic on X.
It is incredibly rare to see two goalkeepers amass over 20 appearances each in a single campaign, although it is testament to Kelleher’s ability that very few people have even been speaking about Alisson’s absence.
Caoimhin Kelleher could be sold
It is strikingly evident that Kelleher is too good to be a mere backup option.
Dalglish even believes the 25-year-old could be getting a bit fed up playing second fiddle to Alisson.
The Glaswegian told the No Tippy Tappy Football Podcast: “You have a young goalkeeper coming through who played fantastically well in the cup final.
“Two fantastic saves one on one, he’s not bad. He was a midfield player until he was 15. It might be frustrating for him at the moment because Alisson – if he’s fit – will be first choice, but Kelleher is fantastic and he has a good record with penalties.”
Celtic are believed to fancy their chances of signing the Cork-born glovesman this summer, after Joe Hart announced his retirement.
It would be a shame to see a No.2 as reliable as Kelleher leave Liverpool, although he has earned the right to become No.1 elsewhere with some heroic performances under Klopp.
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