Loris Karius is struggling in a big way.
Liverpool supporters have every right to be concerned by the news that manager Jurgen Klopp seems determined to keep the faith with his under-fire goalkeeper. It was suggested that a new No 1 was among Klopp's most important priorities this summer but the asking price for their top target, Roma's Alisson Becker, seemingly turned them off that particular move.
Karius' mental state was assessed when he returned for pre-season training last week, having endured near-unprecedented levels of criticism for his performance in May's Champions League final.
Post-match scans revealed that Karius was likely suffering with a concussion when he made the pair of errors which handed Real Madrid their third consecutive Champions League trophy.
"He was influenced by that knock, that is 100 per cent," Klopp said of the German stopper. "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.
https://twitter.com/vonstrenginho/status/1014777825721712641?lang=en
"Now people could think for us it is the explanation – and for me it is 100 per cent the explanation and that’s all."
A clip of Karius making a shocking mistake in the warm-up for the Reds' first pre-season friendly against Chester at the weekend went viral and his shakiness was on full display again on Tuesday night, when he came off the bench in the game against Tranmere Rovers.
The 25-year-old failed to deal with a straightforward free-kick from Oliver Norburn and dropped the ball right at the feet of Jonny Smith, who made no mistake with his finish.
https://twitter.com/jamesdewsbury7/status/1016774168485027842?s=12
Perhaps the asking price for Alisson just rose by another £10 million...
