Arne Slot has explained why Caoimhin Kelleher has been given the nod over Alisson for the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle.
The Dutchman has made just two changes from the Liverpool team that lined up against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Tuesday, with Kelleher and Jarell Quansah replacing Alisson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Alexander-Arnold drops out due to injury, while Alisson is on the bench, with Slot explaining that it is his policy for the second goalkeeper to start in cup games.
“It wasn’t difficult,” Slot said of his decision to start Kelleher. “It was only once when I played Alisson [in the League Cup] and that was only when he had been out injured and needed playing time to be back to his best. For all the other games, we have played the second choice. That was Jaros when Caoimhin was the No.1. Caoimhin has always done so well so deserves to play in this one.”
On Quansah coming into the team for the injured Alexander-Arnold, Slot said: “I don’t think it makes that much difference in the way that the formation is or how we want to build up. It is definitely different if you have Trent, who can put the ball wherever he wants to, but Jarell brings other qualities to the game. He is strong at set pieces, we saw this against PSG when he headed the ball against the post. Everybody has individual qualities but we won’t play a completely different style because we are missing one player.”
