After Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat, it became clear that the Premier League side needed to improve their goalkeeper if they want to fight for top honours next term.

The Anfield side have already secured new midfield recruits in Fabinho and Naby Keita. They still need more new faces to add more strength in depth to their squad but a new keeper has be seen as a priority.

It looks like they could lose out on long term target Alisson, with the Brazilian being heavily linked with a move to Real Madrid. Another name that’s popped up over the last month has been England squad member Nick Pope. It’s believed the Burnley goalie will cost just £15m but his distribution from the back isn’t the greatest and that’s one of the issues current Reds number one Loris Karius has had.

Personally I think a move for Lazio shot-stopper Thomas Strakosha could be a better option for Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp.

Last term, Thomas started thirty-eight times in Serie A, keeping eleven clean-sheets. He also managed three clean-sheets during his club’s Europa League campaign.

He managed to save a last minute penalty from Paulo Dybala as Lazio managed a historic win over Juventus in Turin. After the game Strakosha stated that he’d studied the Argentine forward’s previous penalties and also got inspiration from his father (who also kept goal for Albania during his football career):

“Along with the staff, we had studied Dybala’s penalties and figured he would go to the right side. I had also spoken to my father and finally got to save a penalty.”

“At those moments, all sorts of things go through your mind and God helped me to save it. This was one of the top five saves in my career.”

At just twenty-three years of age, Klopp will see promise in the goalkeeper and hope that he can keep develop into becoming one of the world’s best.

The Albanian intentional certainly has the stature of a top keeper; he’s 6ft 4 and also very agile. He professes that his two goalkeeping heroes are Gianluigi Buffon and Manuel Neuer, you can see qualities from both in Strakosha. He’s great at getting down and making top class reflex saves, plus he’s comfortable with the ball at his feet.

The Liverpool faithful and coaching team might like to see him catch the ball more and command his area but these are things that can be taught, just look at the difference between David De Gea’s first season at Man United and where he’s at now.

The big plus that the young keeper has is his distribution capabilities. He averaged a passing success rate of 71% last term and that’s better than both Karius (67%) and Pope (39%). The Albanian also has a good eye for a nice long pass, that could be extremely valuable to The Reds as that would see the fluid front three getting the ball earlier in counter attacks.

Another positive as far as Liverpool’s recruitment team are concerned could be the fact that Lazio’s starting fee for the player could be €40m. That would be significantly less than what AS Roma want for Alisson. It should also be noted that Thomas has made more appearances than Alisson in European football.

Thomas Strakosha might not be the finished article yet and may seem a bit raw but if Liverpool don’t get their top target in Alisson, then I believe the Albanian international could be a very decent second choice.

Posted on June 18th, 2018 by scott
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