If a mistake or a bad game was rare for Loris Karius, nothing else would need to be said.
If he was a goalkeeper that Liverpool could actually win the league with, you’d excuse him a clanger.
After it was revealed with hindsight that the German native had suffered from a form of concussion during the Champions League final, a lot of the club’s fans were happy to write off all his other shortcomings.
Jurgen Klopp came out this week and blamed the two errors in the European decider on the bang in the head issued by what else but Sergio Ramos’ elbow.
“He was influenced by that knock, that is 100 per cent,” Klopp said.
“What the rest of the world is making of it, I don’t care. It’s really not important what the people say. We do not use it as an excuse.
“Now people could think for us it is the explanation – and for me it is 100 per cent the explanation and that’s all.”
Fair enough.
No-one is going to challenge that. It’s dangerous to, it’s insensitive to and it could well be completely inaccurate to do that as well.
But giving Karius a pass for costing Liverpool a sixth Champions League doesn’t explain the other mistakes he has made at Liverpool and he should be held to a much higher standard than he has been.
But, according to the manager, it isn’t like the goalkeeper to show weakness.
“I got all the pictures from different perspectives, saw it and thought: ‘how can we all think that the boy who didn’t show any weakness in that game until then made these big mistakes in a very important game and nobody thinks it’s because of the knock he got?’ How can we think that? That was, for me, the explanation and I thought: ‘OK, come on, we need to check that.’”
If a sign of weakness in Loris Karius’ goalkeeping was an alarm bell, you have to wonder why it wasn’t ringing long ago in the past – when so many others were highlighting it too.
In fact, just the very round before the Champions League final, Karius had nearly a worse game against Roma out in Italy.
It started with a horrible kick putting his side under needless pressure.
But, okay, that happens.
He got away with a penalty for an offside that should never have been given.
A rush of blood, a bad decision, a foul being lined up from ages away on an Edin Dezeko who was under enough pressure.
He contributes to the Roma equaliser.
When kids are taught to never parry the ball into danger, Karius put an initially tame effort right on a plate for Roma’s best scorer.
Good finish but it didn’t have to be.
The Liverpool ‘keeper barely reacts as Roma take the lead and claw back the aggregate.
It feeds into the shakiness.
Then the worst yet…
He heads the ball…
Inside his own box.
Another panic, another horrible decision and it’s once again followed by poor execution as a poor header goes right to the opposition.
Some of these things in isolation might be dismissed but those are five hairy moments from the one game and they just so happen to be the very game (in that competition) before the Champions League final.
In the first leg at home, Karius lost the flight of another ball like he did with Bale’s shot. Kolarov hit a vicious effort and slipped out of the ‘keeper’s clutches. Luckily, it didn’t go in but some actually called it a good save.
An inch lower and Liverpool are out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage.
The penalty for Dzeko is rightly given and Liverpool are out of the Champions League.
It’s hard not to envy the bond Liverpool have. They really are a tight-knit community, a family, and they build a siege mentality better than most. But, right now, it seems as if they’re going to put up with another sub-standard ‘keeper for no other reason but for the fact that everyone else is slagging him.
Standing by your men is admirable to a point. When it affects the team and the mentality, it’s stupid.
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