Liverpool star who wanted out sends warning to Man City and Arsenal ahead of run in team
Irish goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher is set for a run in the team following the hamstring injury suffered by Alisson Becker, with the Brazilian absent until after the next international break next month
by Mark Jones · The MirrorCaoimhin Kelleher is confident that Liverpool will be able to match title rivals Manchester City and Arsenal during the next few weeks.
Irish goalkeeper Kelleher is set for a run in the team following the hamstring injury suffered by Alisson Becker, with the Brazilian absent until after the next international break next month.
Liverpool face a tricky run of fixtures when they return from the current international hiatus, taking on Chelsea, RB Leipzig, Arsenal, Brighton twice (once in the Carabao Cup and once in the Premier League, Bayer Leverkusen and Aston Villa, but Kelleher is confident that his side have the players to compete on all fronts.
“Obviously the standard is crazy at the moment," said Kelleher, who last month admitted he wanted to leave the club in the summer in the search for first-team football. "You have City and Arsenal who have shown in the last few seasons they are title contenders, and we’re trying to match them.
“But you look at the schedule and every game is a difficult game and that just shows the standard of the league. You can’t relax or take your foot off the pedal in any games because you won’t get the result you want. “I think the quality right throughout the league is really good, and I think personally [it’s] the best league in the world.
“We need to be ambitious, we definitely have the quality within the squad to challenge for a title. It’s easy saying that – you need to obviously back it up. If we want to compete we need to be on a similar level to them [City and Arsenal] and keep these performances up and, most importantly, keep the results up.”
Despite hoping for that exit, Kelleher says he's impressed with the approach of new boss Arne Slot since he replaced Jurgen Klopp in the summer.
“Obviously there was a massive change for us, the manager leaving and a lot of the staff and coaches as well. But I think important for us and the squad of players was that there weren’t too many changes in the squad of players.
“We all know what it’s about, we came close to the league last year so there is that high motivation already to go that one step further. I think that makes it easier for the new manager coming in, that he inherits a squad full of quality. “Like he has been saying, there’s a lot of quality within the squad and a lot of experience and motivation to go that one step further.”
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