Liverpool coach John Achterberg has hailed Newcastle United goalkeeper Loris Karius on Instagram despite his side’s defeat in the EFL Cup final on Sunday at Wembley.
The goalkeeping coach at Anfield stated that Karius, who was making his Newcastle debut for the suspended Nick Pope, put in a ‘top performance’ against eventual winners Manchester United.
Given that Karius hadn’t played first-team football since 2021, just left Anfield during the summer of 2022 and was then warming Newcastle’s bench, he did pretty well, if you look at it from a selfish standpoint.
Not only that, the obvious of that Champions League final will always haunt the 29-year-old because, in the build-up to the League Cup final, that was one of the talking points.
But despite all of that noise, Karius was probably Newcastle’s best player at Wembley and he deserves praise for his efforts.
Achterberg would have worked first-hand with Karius on Merseyside and he thinks the German is now ‘back on the map’, as he posted in the comments section of the Newcastle man’s IG post.
“Shame not to win,” said Achterberg. “But back on the map with a top performance.”
KARIUS NOW NEEDS TO KICK ON
Initially, when Karius moved to St James’ Park, he signed a contract until January, before extending that stay.
He’s not going to dethrone Pope from the starting XI and will continue to play that backup role until the end of the season.
But this is now the time for Karius to return back to being number one and use this platform to pick up his career again after that nightmare period at Liverpool.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
