Yeah both good shouts.. I think Pepe at his peak was probably the best we have had at the modern way of play for goalkeepers
Goalkeeper is such a tough one to judge fairly.. I mean I'm not protecting Karius, it would be so difficult to do and for me I'd like to see him stay, but bring someone in who can compete with him and if they take their chance take over as number one. Karius did his reputation and his own mindset no good against Madrid and I'm not sure he will ever get to his potential after that. I certainly want us to sign a keeper to compete
But as i said it's a tough position to judge. Look at one example.. our own Simon Mignolet. He was at Sunderland and was rated very very highly (highly enough to get his move) but he was in a side who set up defensively, but who had may be 15-20 shots against them per game.. now from the club point of view they may lose 3-1 and obviously he gets beaten 3 times but he could make 10 saves per game from long shots that make him look better than he is ultimately..
However the he comes here, we are a better side on the front foot mostly and he may only face 2-3 shots a game here, he has to concentrate with nothing to do for the vast majority rather than in the action constantly.. yet if he makes a mistake here and we lose 2-1 from his 3 shots he's f**king w*nk.
It's completely different type of goalkeeping and only the best can be ultimately effective at a big club because they have to remove most mistakes, but also perform when they are not in the game for 85% of the game
I think that's one of Karius's main issues personally
I get the for and against for Karius and also understand why some have concerns in not going for a sweeper keeper, and yeah, there is a higher risk for a traditional keeper playing in our team....... on paper, but I don't think it's as simple as looking at the piece and paper and saying he won't fit in or he will.
Look at Karius' saves, pretty much all of them are standard for any keeper, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXaQagoxDjkThen look at his goals conceded (taken from the 2nd half of the season):
Liverpool 2 - 1 Leicester City
Liverpool 2 - 1 Everton
Liverpool 4 - 3 Manchester City
Liverpool 2 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool 4 - 1 West Ham
Manchester United 2 - 1 Liverpool
Crystal Palace 1 - 2 Liverpool
Manchester City 1 - 2 Liverpool
West Bromwich Albion 2 -2 Liverpool
Liverpool 5 - 2 Roma
Roma 4 - 2 Liverpool
Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool
As you can see, the goals conceded and saved wasn't down to having a sweeper or traditional keeper.
Even before watching the highlights of saves and conceded goals, I didn't even recall the need for a sweeper keeper in the defensive aspect.... even when we had world class Migs in goal!
Okay, I get it, Karius is quicker and more suited to Migs in playing a high line, but going back to our second half saves, conceded goals or even full matches, if we played the same high line with, Oblak, Pope, Butland or De Gea, would we not get the same scenario as what we have seen with Karius?
Maybe the biggest difference (having a GK you trust helps too) is the stability and speed of our back 4 that's really allowed us to play a higher line than usual? Our defensive seems to be quick enough to minimize the space between the back 4 and GK, and as seen on the video of saves and conceded goals, they have nothing to do with sweeping keeping or high lines.
So perhaps a traditional keeper such as, Pope, Oblak, Butland, De Gea wouldn't be such an issue? Yeah, maybe we won't have that extra life that a sweeper keeper could give if someone gets through our defensive high up, but we could gain in other goal keeping areas (Aerially, Shot stopping etc).
As I am writing this, another thing that springs into mind, modern keepers are not as traditional as before, are they? They are asked to sweep more these days, so again, perhaps these "traditional" keepers can work just as effective as a sweeper keeper in our team?
Anyway, I will say this for Karius, his quick distribution and awareness when on the ball are exceptional and has been the biggest difference in the goal keeping aspect.