Liverpool goalkeeping coach John Achterberg has been speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws about Simon Mignolet, and he’s defended the Belgian.
What’s the story?
Well, Mignolet became something of a laughing stock at Liverpool, as he often made an error or two while playing for the Reds.
However, Achterberg believes the £8.2m man’s weaknesses were blown out of proportion, due to the high expectations at Anfield.
The 50-year-old said: “Simon is just a very good goalkeeper, but at Liverpool, they expected everything to be perfect. Today I still see much inferior goalkeepers than Simon in the Premier League, where he certainly could and can play.”
“Because of that negativity, nobody came to him, even though he wanted to play every week.”
It’s nice to see Achterberg speak positively about the 33-year-old, although there’s no denying he wasn’t good enough for Liverpool.
Mignolet has found his level in Belgium, keeping five clean sheets in 15 Jupiler Pro League appearances this season.
The ex-Liverpool man has also won the Jupiler Pro League title twice, as well as the Belgian Super Cup.
Simon Mignolet was not what Liverpool needed
You only need to look at the statistics to see how much better Alisson is in comparison to Mignolet.
In 204 appearances for Liverpool, Mignolet conceded 239 goals, and kept just 66 clean sheets.
In the case of Alisson, the Brazil international has kept 68 clean sheets in just 147 appearances, conceding only 120 goals.
The fact Alisson has kept two more clean sheets than Mignolet in 57 less games speaks volumes.
It was a transformative decision from Klopp to bring Alisson to Anfield.
His arrival has had a significant impact on the backline, and helped tighten up what was a very leaky Liverpool side in Klopp’s early years at Anfield.
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