Pep Lijnders says Liverpool have an ‘outstanding’ academy graduate in their ranks

The Liverpool coach, speaking to the Reds media team, says the 25-year-old is “the most outstanding” and “most complete” keeper out of the academy.

Kelleher has been Liverpool’s second-choice goalkeeper for a number of years now and is currently shining in Alisson Becker’s absence.

The 25-year-old has played in the Reds’ last three Premier League games, helping his team win each of those. He has also featured heavily in the Europa League and the Carabao Cup.

Indeed, the latter is seen as ‘his’ competition. He has played in every one of Liverpool’s matches in the tournament this season, as well as last season.

In 2021/22, he missed two games in the Carabao Cup but played in the final and scored the decisive penalty to help Liverpool triumph against Chelsea. Now, the Reds and the Blues are set for a rematch.

Although Kelleher likely would’ve played even if Alisson was fit, the latter is set to miss the match alongside Trent Alexander-Arnold, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota.

Lijnders, speaking to the Liverpool media team, couldn’t sing the Irishman’s praises highly enough.

“For a club like Liverpool, we need two good goalkeepers,” he began. “I’m really happy that we have.

“It’s really special and a compliment for John [Achterberg], for Jack [Robinson] and for Taffa [Claudio Taffarel] and for the guys at the Academy, because we produce some good goalkeepers already, but Caoimhin is probably the most outstanding one and who is most complete.

“He can make match-winning saves, he has this and he sees the game, he knows how to act as the free player, he knows when to play with direction and his calmness and his serenity creates calmness for the others.

“Especially how we want to play, if you want to manage the ball from the back, to find one-v-one situations, to create better one-v-one situations… it’s really important to have a goalkeeper like that.”