Gary Neville told Monday Night Football, which was broadcast on Sky Sports, that Liverpool were ‘never’ going to win the Premier League ‘in a million years’ with Loris Karius or Simon Mignolet in between the sticks.
The former Manchester United defender was trying to justify how important Alisson has been for the club, as he named the Liverpool man in his Team of the Year.
Whilst Karius is still on Liverpool’s books, his future on Merseyside is more or less over as he is currently on-loan in the Bundesliga where he is playing for Union Berlin.
On the other hand, Mignolet is now back in his home country of Belgium where he is plying his trade for Club Brugge.
Given the error-prone ways both keepers have had about their games on Merseyside, Neville was certain that winning the league with either in between the sticks was ‘never’ going to happen.
“They were never going to win the league, never going to win the league with the previous goalkeepers [Mignolet and Karius] in a million years,” said Neville. “Never. Not going to happen!
“That’s eight, ten or 15 points there. Honestly, you cannot quantify it. It’s just a guess. But in your mind, you just know that when a goalkeeper makes an error, the impact it has on the defence is catastrophic.
“Then it just builds. That nervousness just builds. And all of a sudden the crowd starts to go. He [Alisson] is a brilliant goalkeeper.”
The proof was in the pudding with Mignolet that Liverpool weren’t able to get over the line when he was starting and the Champions League final will always be a day to forget for Karius.
Either way, the man to replace them has made the world of difference and it can rightly be argued that he is the best stopper in the land right now.
Even this season, when he has been on the sidelines with injury, his missing presence has had an effect on the team and the 7-2 defeat at Aston Villa is a prime example of that.
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