Simon Mignolet is pretty confident that his place in the Liverpool starting place is set and that Loris Karius will not simply walk into the team again. The Belgian goalkeeper was dropped from the side and replaced with Karius midway through the campaign but costly mistakes from the German keeper has seen Mignolet come back into the side.

Karius was brought to the club from Mainz at the start of the season and was expected to take over from the error-prone Mignolet. But an injury during pre-season saw the Belgian continue to stay between the sticks.

The German keeper did get a chance to showcase his ability behind the defence but major errors against Bournemouth and West Ham saw a lot of criticism thrown on him. And he was subsequently dropped from the side, even getting into a war of words with the Neville brothers.

Mignolet did keep a couple of clean sheets in his return before a bit of an error saw Stoke lead in their game against the Reds. Liverpool did win the match 4-1 but Jamie Carragher had a bit of a pop at the goalkeeper for his mistake.

Speaking about the incident to the Times, Mignolet stated:

“I have accepted that every goal that goes into Liverpool’s net at this moment in time, the first question that will be asked is, ‘Could the ’keeper have done better?’

“Actually, I am pretty happy because I have played three games and that was the first time it was asked of me. That’s a good sign.

“Carra has been a critic of mine. He wants goalkeepers to make big saves, but against Stoke if I don’t make the save against Joe Allen, then the game becomes much more difficult.”

The former Sunderland goalkeeper also opened up about the relationship he had with his rival, Karius and used a bizarre comparison as well.

“There is no hatred.

“No, no. It is not Loris’s fault that I was not playing and it is not my fault that Loris is not playing at this time.

“OK, so we are not going to be like I am with my brother, or with Divock [Origi] or Georginio [Wijnaldum], but it is not like I take his chicken kebab off his plate when he is not looking.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVF9j2iiWQ4