After a 5-0 evisceration of Napoli in Dublin this afternoon, Jurgen Klopp praised the impact that 19-year-old Caoimhin Kelleher has made during Liverpool's pre-season to date. Kelleher played against both Manchester clubs during Liverpool's tour of America, doing so against United in front of a Michigan crowd that swelled beyond a hundred thousand people. Although Kelleher was an unused substitute at the Aviva this afternoon, Klopp hailed Kelleher as an "outstanding talent" and confirmed he will part of the first-team squad for the season ahead.
He is an outstanding talent. Outstanding. Very cool with the ball, you saw that in pre-season when he played in front of 100,000 people, that he wasn't bothered about that which is a very important skill to have. For most of his youth he was an outfield player, he has fantastic reactions. If nothing serious happens, he will have a really fantastic future. I don't know how many really good goalkeepers that Ireland have but one more is never a big problem. I like him a lot and he will be in our squad.
The main event today for Liverpool, however, was another goalkeeper: Alisson Becker made his debut after a world record transfer from Roma, and Klopp was impressed with his new signing's ability with the ball at his feet.
He's quite a good footballer, isn't he? Probably as good as a goalkeeper he is. After all that was written about him, making his debut against Napoli - who were the best team we have played in pre-season so far, they had nearly their full squad - but he was very aware in all situations and he was immediate off his line. We involved him a lot in our build up but we need to get used to that a little more, and he needs to get used to it a little more, but there were a lot of good build-up situations. But I was really pleased.
