REDS CARPET TREATMENT FOR CAOIMHIN
Kelleher in right place to learn his trade
HE was onstage early in the celebrations at Anfield, but Caoimhin Kelleher was not presented with a Premier League winner’s medal last Wednesday night.
That doesn’t mean he will go without, with Jurgen Klopp insistent that all of his players should be rewarded for the club’s first league title in 30 years.
Under Premier League rules, Kelleher does not qualify. The 21-year-old Corkman, who is Liverpool’s third-choice goalkeeper, has yet to play a league game for the champions.
The title winners receive a total of 40 medals that are to be distributed among players, staff and officials at the club’s discretion. But the Premier League direct that any player who gets one must have featured in a minimum of five league games.
That, then, would see Kelleher miss out – and he joins Jeff Kenna as an Irishman who is part of a Premier League-winning squad but who does not qualify for the medal.
Kenna joined Blackburn in March 1995 and played nine matches in their title win and, under the rules at the time, that was not enough to earn a medal.
The number of Irish Premier
League winners remains at five: Roy Keane, Denis Irwin, John O’Shea, Damien Duff and Darron Gibson. But Klopp addressed the medals issue after Liverpool were confirmed as champions last month.
‘People don’t understand how important a squad is to win a championship,’ he said.
‘If you play no games you should get a medal. If you are a goalkeeper and you don’t play, you should get a medal because you train five million times for a year and if you don’t train at the highest level you have no chance to win a championship.
‘So someone decides they need five games to win a medal? These boys will get a medal 100 per cent if I have to produce it by myself.’
Even without it, Kelleher’s exposure to the workings of the English champions will only benefit him.
That he trains every day with Allison Becker, arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, is both a benefit and a drawback. He absorbs the expertise of a master, but Allison’s very excellence affects Kelleher’s chances of playing games.
The erratic Spaniard Adrian was Allison’s understudy for the season, and it could be some time before Kelleher displaces him to even deputise regularly for Allison.
However, his youth and the fact that he is part of a successful team, under one of the most renowned managers in the world, should check any unease Kelleher may feel about his limited chances.
He played four games for the club this season, three in the
League Cup and one in the FA Cup, and he was one of three young players who flew out to join the squad during the Club World Cup in Qatar in December.
That was the day after Kelleher was one of a number of young players picked to play in a League Cup match against Aston Villa that the club lost 5-0. The result, the line-up and the absence of Klopp and all of his senior players and coaches brought criticism, as the club’s schedule saw the Qatar fixtures clash with a competition that is a secondary concern for England’s leading teams at the best of times.
Any disappointment Kelleher may have felt at being part of that defeat had surely evaporated by the time his flight touched down in the Middle East; Liverpool’s Club World Cup win coincided with their best form of the season. This was six months after Kelleher was part of the squad that won the Champions League. Kelleher joined Liverpool when he was 16, but this season has been the most significant of his career so far. ‘I’m happy with it. Every year I think I’ve gotten better and better and getting into the first team was a big step for me,’ he told Cork’s 96FM last month. ‘To do that this season and to play a few games has been really good for me. I just think I’ve been getting better and I’ve been happy with it.’ Kelleher had been called up to Ireland senior squads under Mick McCarthy, but his established relationship with Stephen Kenny should prove significant in the months ahead.
Kelleher was Kenny’s goalkeeper with the Ireland Under 21s.
He will not displace Darren Randolph as Ireland’s first pick, yet, but Kenny’s knowledge of him and his game, should prove extremely beneficial.
Kenny was still the U21 manager when Kelleher made his debut for Liverpool in a League Cup game against MK Dons last September.
‘He was involved with Liverpool last season, obviously behind Alisson and (Simon) Mignolet at that time,’ said Kenny at the time. ‘He was with the first team, travelling a lot. The fact that he was able to play for us, firstly against Luxembourg, the five games against Toulon and then the two qualifiers means that he has eight U21 internationals under his belt in that short space of time.
‘I think that’s really brought him on and given him extra confidence. I think in seven of those games, if we take Brazil out of the equation, we only conceded two goals so that’s pretty impressive.
‘It’s great for him that he made his debut last week for Liverpool. He has a great attitude and it’s progress, you’d have to view it that way.’
Two years ago, before the club signed Allison, Klopp played Kelleher in a number of pre-season matches and he made a point of praising the goalkeeper then, especially his abilities with the ball at his feet.
That is an area of play where Allison excels, and it is now considered vital for a goalkeeper in the modern game to be a proficient passer.
‘He was a long time in his youth playing as an outfield player, which you can see,’ said Klopp.
‘But he has fantastic reactions. I like him a lot, I’m delighted to have him in our squad.
‘If nothing serious happens, he has a really fantastic future.’
“They’ll get a medal if I make it by myself” “He was with the first team, travelling a lot”