Caoimhin Kelleher made a real name for himself back in 2022. He starred in the Carabao Cup final as Liverpool lifted the trophy – something he looked certain to build on.
This came after several first-team appearances, both in the Premier League and Champions League. All looked well until last season.
Kelleher played just three times across the 2022/23 campaign. Once in the Premier League, twice in the Carabao Cup, and that was it. 301 minutes of football.
That can be seen as something of a disaster for the Irishman. He’s no long a particularly young player, turning 25 later this month, but had seen his stock plummet with the lack of football.
Thankfully, Liverpool have used Kelleher a lot more this season – he’s arguably the main beneficiary of them playing in the Europa League this season. In fact, the goalkeeper already has more appearances and minutes than he did in the entirety of the last campaign.
Unsurprisingly, Kelleher is thrilled that Jurgen Klopp has been trusting him to start games this season. The player opened up on exactly that in an interview with Liverpoolfc.com.
“I’m obviously very happy that the manager has trusted me to start the games in this competition and also getting the League Cup games so far as well,” he said. “It’s been good for me and obviously given me a good chunk of game time.
“So yeah, I’ve been happy to play in this competition and it’s obviously good opponents you’re playing against and you get good away days like this.”
Kelleher is slowly trying to build that reputation back up, then, and has a chance to do just that this season. Exactly what his long-term future looks like is unclear – he could well want to move on next year.
For now, though, he’s a capable Europa League goalkeeper for Liverpool and one who can hopefully contribute again to another successful cup campaign.
