David James on whether calamity keeper Loris Karius has a Liverpool future after his Champions League final nightmare
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Jurgen Klopp has been urged to give blundering keeper Loris Karius another chance at Liverpool.
David James understands the pressures of trying to be the Reds' No 1 from his seven years there in the 1990s, and sympathises with Karius after his nightmare evening in the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid last weekend.
James, nicknamed 'Calamity James' back in the day because of his own knack for costly errors, claims the 24-year-old German should not be written off by the Anfield giants because of one bad game and insisted he is still young enough to prove himself.
(Image: UEFA/Getty)
(Image: Getty)
“Yeah, he’s got time on his side for sure,” he said.
“He’s a talented goalkeeper. Unfortunately, it was a Champions League final where it didn’t quite go right for him.
“If you want to be playing in those games, you have to expect things like this. Playing for Liverpool comes with a tremendous upside, but if there is a downside, then every mistake is going to be amplified more than anyone else’s.
(Image: Allsport)
“Goalkeeper is a tough position to play at Liverpool.
“I hope Karius is given an opportunity to set the record straight and prove why he was such an important buy. I hope he’s able to bounce back and prove what a good goalkeeper he could be.”
James, 47, was in Kiev, and spotted that Karius took a whack on the head minutes before his first mistake gifted Karim Benzema the lead and suspects this might have been a factor.
(Image: AFP/Getty)
(Image: AFP)
“I have analysed all the goals and one thing I don’t think anyone has picked up on is that three minutes before the first goal, he actually suffered a blow to the head,” said the former England No 1.
“I wonder whether that had any influence on his game because it was literally three minutes beforehand he got smashed and ended up in the back of the goal, but they didn’t show that in the replays.
“It can take a while to get over something like that. If that had any influence on it, then that becomes an exceptional circumstance.
(Image: Reuters)
(Image: Getty)
“If you analyse the performance as just as a performance and strip away all the external influences — ie, it being a cup final — then as a goalkeeper coach you’ve got to work out how he can improve.
“I’d like to think there was something which was an influence on the performance — ie, a blow to the head — more than anything else.”
James also defended Karius for fumbling Gareth Bale’s long-range effort into the back of the net for Real Madrid’s clinching third goal.
(Image: AFP/Getty)
(Image: AFP/Getty)
(Image: Reuters)
“Interestingly, in my analysis, he put his hands up too early and didn’t see the ball until the last second and then the ball wasn’t where he thought it was,” he said.
“These things happen in training sessions, you hope they don’t happen in matches.
“But unfortunately he had the worst person shooting against him in Gareth Bale, who is renowned for hitting wobblers from distance.”
* David James was speaking after delivering state-of-the-art LG products, including OLED TVs and sound bars, to 13 families in Wembley Grove in Birmingham to enhance their enjoyment of the World Cup.
(Image: LG)