As Liverpool prepare to take on Brighton and Hove Albion at Anfield on Wednesday, Ireland fans will be happy to hear that Caoimhín Kelleher starts for the Reds.
Caoimhín Kelleher
Among the admirers of Kelleher is Gary Breen, who told Off The Ball that he believes the Corkonian to be one of the best Irish players produced
"Sometimes we can build these young players [up] and put so much pressure on them but this is warranted for this boy," Breen continued.
"For Jurgen Klopp, in a game that he billed as one of the most pressure-filled games, bearing in mind the amount of injuries they had, to give Kelleher the nod over someone like Adrian was incredible.
"The reason he did it was because of his footballing ability," said Breen, marvelling at the composure the Corkman has shown on the ball.
"Caoimhin has been doing this for the under-21s. We have seen the way Stephen Kenny wants to play out from the back. We have seen Caomhin do this so comfortably."
Minamino
One player who won't be in a Liverpool shirt for the time being is Takumi Minamino, with the Japanese forward moving on loan to Southampton.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp explained the move to Liverpool's club website.
“Yeah, of course, having options makes it the only chance that you can give a player to another club,” Klopp said.
“But we were active in this situation a little; Southampton asked and it was not that we said, ‘No, no, no, no chance.’ We thought about it.
“Takumi is an incredibly good player and we didn’t give him enough chances, that’s the truth. That’s for different reasons. Sometimes it was just the size; because of our problems in defence we were not tall enough and then Takumi on the pitch you think, ‘OK, how can we do that then?’
"Defending set-pieces is a very important part. It’s for the player not too interesting and for journalists probably not too interesting, but in some moments even these kind of things make the difference why one player is playing and the other not.
