Liverpool boss Arne Slot has confirmed that Caoimhin Kelleher will retain his place in goal for the Reds’ Carabao Cup third-round clash against West Ham United tomorrow night, as Alisson Becker continues his recovery from injury.
Kelleher stepped in for the injured Alisson during Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth at Anfield, keeping a clean sheet in an impressive performance.
The Republic of Ireland international is set to start once again, while Alisson is targeting a return to the lineup for Liverpool’s Premier League fixture against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.
“It’s sure that Caoimh (Kelleher) will be in goal tomorrow,” Slot said at his pre-West Ham press conference.
“Alisson is getting there but I think this game is coming just a bit too early and we are looking at the weekend against Wolves, but it’s going to be tight so let’s see if he manages to be there.
“But he will not be there tomorrow so Caoimh will be in goal tomorrow, that’s the one thing I know for sure at this moment.
“I wasn’t surprised at all with his performance [against Bournemouth] because he was very good in pre-season already and he was very good with his national team as well.
“It’s a good thing for us that we have two quality players, and we forget the third one in this position because in almost every position we have two but in goalkeepers we have got three or four and our third one is also a really good goalkeeper.
“So it’s a good thing for us.
“Like you saw, we need to have a strong squad because you can pick up injuries or whatever can happen.
“So, it was good to see and pleasing to see that he kept a clean sheet – not in a way that he had nothing to do, he had to act a few times and he acted really well.”
On how close Federico Chiesa is to a first Liverpool start, Slot said: “I don’t think he’s able to play 90 minutes, he only played 25 now as a maximum in the last three, four, five months.
“I don’t think he played any friendlies at Juve as well.
“But he is able to start, in our opinion, and if he will, let’s see.
“There are many options we have.
“But he is able to start, in our opinion, but I don’t think he is able to play 90 at the level we are playing tomorrow against a strong West Ham team.”
On the possibility of general rotation of his squad for the tie with the Hammers, he added: “Yeah, I want all of them to play – unfortunately that’s not possible because you can only name 11.
“But we will play with the best possible team and that can sometimes also mean that other players that have played a lot are maybe a bit more tired.
“So that means because the differences are so small, that I will select different players for this game.
“They will come in today and we will look at how fit they are, and then I will make the decision who is going to start and who isn’t.”
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