11 Dec 2016

Dump Him: Lawro urges Klopp to replace €18m Liverpool star with 'brilliant' international ASAP

Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has urged Jurgen Klopp to make a massive change for Sunday's Premier League clash with West Ham.

Speaking to the BBC this week, Lawro claimed that Karius is 'not good enough' to be Liverpool's number one, and further insisted:

"Simon Mignolet is a better goalkeeper [than Karius] no question. Klopp has to bring Mignolet back on Sunday and forget about how Karius might lose confidence if he is dropped".

Looking at the situation objectively, does he deserve to be dropped?

Karius made an error against Bournemouth that basically cost Liverpool the match, but it's arguably unfair just to drop him for that. As such - as with any player - It's fairer to look at Karius's form over a significant period of time.

In this case, Karius started nine games before the Bournemouth defeat, and as you can see, his primary stats are excellent:

* Karius: 6 goals conceded in 9 games (One every 135 mins. 4 clean sheets)

* Results: 7 wins and 2 draws (no defeats).

As a comparison, over the same period:

* De Gea: 12 goals conceded (One every 67 mins. 2 clean sheets)

* Lloris: 9 goals conceded (one every 90 mins. 2 clean sheets)

* Cech: 8 goals conceded (One every 101 mins. 2 clean sheets)

In Karius's case, why does ONE mistake in ONE game hold more weight than NINE games of solid performance? Yes, Liverpool's defence plays its part, but the same is true for Arsenal, Spurs, and Man Utd, yet Karius has still outperformed the 'keepers for those teams.

Calling for Karius to be dropped is short-termist thinking in the extreme. Some fans and pundits just can't see past the end of their own noses, and this type of narrow-minded thinking is increasingly prevalent in football (and in life). In my view, it's a kind of attention deficit disorder, whereby people just can't seem to evaluate and/or analyse anything other than what happened five minutes ago.

* ^ Mignolet: €23m-rated (CIES Football Observatory). Hailed as 'brilliant' by Ray Clemence.


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