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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Liverpool have a perfect opportunity to show off their ruthless side by binning Simon Mignolet this summer.
Jurgen Klopp said on Sunday that he expected the goalkeeper to stay at the club for the 2019/20 season and provide support to No.1 Alisson Becker.
Yet one has to ask what the point of that is.
The Belgium international has shown repeatedly that he is nowhere near the class of the Brazil international.
Of course, it is rare that back-up goalkeepers live up to the talents of the first-choice stoppers but, even so, there is better depth across the league.
Manchester City have Claudio Bravo, an experienced, reliable option who is also a penalty specialist; Manchester United have Sergio Romero, an Argentina international who would be a first-choice at a number of Premier League clubs; Tottenham Hotspur’s Paolo Gazzaniga enjoyed an excellent season as Hugo Lloris’ back-up; Frank Lampard’s Chelsea have Willy Caballero behind Kepa.
Mignolet is worse than every deputy mentioned.
His statistics prove that he is, quite simply, a pretty poor stopper.
In 204 games for the Reds, he has conceded 239 goals at an average of 1.17-goals-per-game. Bravo’s average at City is a goal-per-game, Romero’s average at United is 0.5-goals-per-game, Gazzaniga has an average of 0.8, while Caballero’s is also 0.8.
Compare Mignolet, also, to Alisson, who conceded, on average, 0.6-goals-per-game.
Liverpool, quite simply, need a more reliable back-up than the Belgian.
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He played twice last season and they lost both games, to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup and Wolves in the FA Cup.
Bringing in a goalkeeper who can actually keep goal properly while Alisson is out of the team is a must.
As it is, Mignolet is a liability and keeping him around is merely paying lip service to a solid “professional” who hasn’t complained about his spot.
The reason for that, though, is very simple: He shouldn’t be anywhere near the teamsheet.