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Football News: Liverpool supporters should support Loris Karius

Liverpool supporters should support Loris Karius
Image from: freelargeimages.com

If Loris Karius is to be Liverpool's No1 for 2018-19, Liverpool supporters should do just that - support him

Liverpool's goalkeeping situation has been discussed at some length on the Liverpool Rumours web site, particularly so after Loris Karius' two errors leading to two Real Madrid goals in what was Liverpool's biggest match since Jurgen Klopp's arrival in 2015.

The German 'keeper received death threats (to both himself and his family), torrents of abuse and unacceptable vitriol from Liverpool "fans" and many others across the footballing world for his performance on the 26th of May 2018.

Of course, it was disappointing to lose the match. That was a chance to get some major silverware and success under our belt for what has been a frustratingly long period where we have won just one trophy - the League Cup - since 2007.

Karius became the fall guy for his errors. Something which is perhaps all the more awful with it emerging that he was concussed - football, and sport in general, does not do nearly enough to combat the potentially life-altering effects of head injuries - Karius needed medical support which he didn't receive until far too late, but that's another point for another time.

What I will deal with here are the facts (apologies for sounding like Rafa Benitez there! ) We don't know how that concussion effected Karius, but we do know how Karius' emergence into the side effected Liverpool.

As many of you will know, I work for stats company Opta, and my job is to give context to their stats - which I will try to do in in order to support Karius.

According to Opta, Karius made two errors leading to goals in that fateful match against Real Madrid. Nobody will dispute that.

But that's more than he had made in his previous 37 appearances for Liverpool combined (one - vs Roma) since the start of 2017 in all competitions. (To be clear here, an "error leading to a goal" is only given when a *clear* error *directly* leads to a goal being scored - so if there is something that could have prevented the goal after the error was made, it won't be given as such) .

The point here, is that those errors by Karius were major rarities. Something we hadn't seen from him since he took Simon Mignolet's place in the team.

Let's look at Liverpool's Premier League record in 2017-18. Mignolet and Karius both played exactly half (19) of the 38 games each, so a comparison between the two there is convenient and easy.

With Mignolet in the side, Liverpool conceded 24 goals in those 19 matches. Karius conceded 14 in the same number of games.

That all resulted in Liverpool's win percentage being 57.9% with Karius in the side, 52.6% without him. And that gave an increase of 0.1 points per game under Karius - or 4 points per season.

Indeed, Karius saved 69% of the shots on target he faced during the last Premier League season. That means that of the 21 goalkeepers to play at least half of their team's 38 league games last season, Karius was one of the 12 that saved between 67% and 71% of shots on target faced. Not outstanding, but not poor by any stretch of the imagination. Only David de Gea (81%), Nick Pope (77%) and Hugo Lloris (74%) bettered that group.

By comparison, Mignolet saved 61% - a significant drop off. Again with a minimum 19 appearances, only Heurelho Gomes (60%) and Joe Hart (58%) had a poorer ratio than him. Karius was more resolute.

In fact, of all goalkeepers to play at least twice in the Premier League last season, Karius had the best games per clean sheet ratio, keeping a clean sheet on average every 1.90 games played (10 clean sheets in 19 appearances) . That's better than the much lauded David de Gea (2.06), and the title-winning Ederson (2.25) in second and third respectively.

Karius also kept more clean sheets than any other goalkeeper in the 2017-18 Champions League (6).

Read into those figures whatever you so wish - they are simply the facts. What they do prove is that Karius is a goalkeeper playing in a side that is capable of being resolute defensively. Clean sheets don't come easily in the Premier League, and Liverpool had a habit of keeping them with Karius in the side.

Of course, Karius wasn't the only change to Liverpool from a defensive note midway through the season. Virgil van Dijk also arrived from Southampton. And it was a combination of his arrival and Karius' emergence into the team that brought about Liverpool's upturn in defensive form.

But Karius was a major part of a team that Liverpool supporters could be proud of, reaching the Champions League final for the first time since 2007. One mad 45 minutes seemed to change that, and that's sad really, not just for Karius, but for Liverpool as a whole.

So rather than argue over whether we should sign an Alisson, a Butland, or a Cillessen, let's do as any "supporter" should - support. Karius needs just that now more than ever, whether we sign a new goalkeeper or not.

Written by Reid the Red July 07 2018 13:15:43

 

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