Mignolet has to start making ‘defining’ saves.
Legendary former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has fired a warning shot in the direction of the club’s goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, report Sky Sports, suggesting taht the Belgian must up his performances at Anfield if he is to avoid being replaced by better in the near future.
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Mignolet has been far from convincing this season and, whilst the Belgian rarely makes errors that can be directly attributed to him, the former Sunderland ‘keeper does seem to struggle to instil confidence into a Liverpool defence that is already shaky without any intervention from their number one.
This is something that has been picked up on by Carragher, who was a long term captain at Anfield and believes that Mignolet must start making more significant positive contributions to Liverpool:
“I think the best goalkeepers who win big trophies make big saves at big moments. That was a big moment. It’s not a massive mistake, but can he do better?”
“Everyone always talks about Steven Gerrard slipping and costing Liverpool the league and you can never look at one individual and one mistake, but Demba Ba still had to go through. You’re looking at your keeper and thinking: ‘Come on, win us the league. Make that save that’s going to be a defining moment in the season.”
Having been brought in by Brendan Rodgers to replace Pepe Reina, Mignolet has largely failed to justify his price tag, although remains young for a goalkeeper and still has plenty of time to improve his prospects.
One issue that may be holding Mignolet back is a lack of quality competition for the goalkeeping jersey at Anfield, with Australian former Middlesbrough goalkeeper Brad Jones and Welsh teenager Danny Ward not providing the quality back-up that other Premier League clubs have at their disposal – notably Chelsea with Petr Cech and Arsenal with David Ospina.
Carragher believes that if Mignolet fails to improve, he could find his place at the club in jeopardy:
“Up until now in his Liverpool career he hasn’t made those big saves. If it continues I can see Liverpool looking for another goalkeeper.”