A Happy Ending for Slumdog Mignolet? Time will tell..

Slumdog Millionaire won 8 Oscars in the 2009 Academy Awards. An uplifting and emotional tale *spoiler alert* of how a young man overcomes some very painful setbacks to succeed at a popular game watched by millions.

Simon Mignolet, having endured a torrid time in his first few years at Liverpool, with mistakes and lows aplenty, has recently signed a bumper new contract that is thought to be 5 and a half years long! From being dropped for, ahem, Brad Jones to signing a long term contract renewal at England’s most successful football club is akin to winning the lottery, never mind winning Who wants to be a Millionaire. Most Premier League footballers are millionaires already.

But while Jamal Malik from the film got his hearts desire and then the credits rolled, Simon Mignolet’s Liverpool career will continue very much in the spotlight. And the spotlight is not a comfortable place for a goalkeeper who has so often under-performed.

Klopp has publicly backed his goalkeeper, something any manager would do, especially when until recently his only backup was Adam Bogdan. But he has also, on a number of occasions without being prompted, said Mignolet is still young enough to improve. This has two interesting points. Firstly it shows that Klopp recognises that Mignolet needs to improve. Secondly that it may not be too late for him to do so.

His numerous errors (some less overt than others) before Klopp arrived have sadly continued since the German’s arrival. Whether or not you blame Mignolet for not keeping out Rooney’s winner vs Man United, the Belgian has continued to flap at crosses, kick poorly, fail to command his area or communicate effectively with his defenders. At 27 Mignolet is not a young keeper, and yet there are numerous much younger keepers in the Premier League that are much more accomplished. The same is true of the Bundlesliga, and hence all the links to talented young keepers like Timo Horn or Loris Karius.

Klopp, whose father was a goalkeeper, is well aware of this.

In my opinion Mignolet, so far, has been arguably the worst first choice keeper Liverpool have had in the last 25 years. Westerveld & Dudek both had at least one good season before their standards started slipping and the mistakes started coming with increasing frequency. And both had better distribution, were more commanding and communicated better than Simon. Neither was as error prone until their last years. James was as error prone at times, but he was a pro-active keeper, who always came for crosses and tried to be dominant. James too was an agile stopper like Mignolet, but he was never stuck on his line looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

Mignolet has always been a good shot stopper. When he has no time to think or make a conscious decision, but uses his large frame and reactions to pull off a save, it’s hard to argue that Mignolet isn’t good at making saves. Or is it?

This season Mignolet is down in 18th for save percentage amongst Premier League keepers; not that effective after all it seems, though this is nevertheless still his main strength. In fact I would go as far as saying it’s the only thing he is good at. His distribution with his feet is League 1 level, it’s only this season he’s begun to throw the ball out and even then usually underarm rolls it 10 yards. He is slow to release the ball often missing counterattacking opportunities, he doesn’t command his area, and when he comes for crosses he often doesn’t fully commit to reaching the ball. His handling is good except when he’s under pressure, in which case it’s too often bad, etc. There has been some improvement since he joined Liverpool, but not nearly enough. There is little to suggest he is a top half goalkeeper, let alone a top 4 one.

So why the new contract? Either Klopp rates him and believes he has the capacity to improve or the contract is to preserve his value in the transfer market. It’s speculative but the length of the contract may be because Mignolet’s agent indicated they would not sign without a 5 year deal (a 3 or 4 year one would’ve been sufficient to protect his value before a possible sale if that was the club’s intentions). And maybe Klopp genuinely feels that he can improve, and wants at least a full season to judge and give him an opportunity to do so.

One would think Liverpool would need a new goalkeeping coach to better help Mignolet and other keepers. How John Achterberg has survived so long is a separate issue, but Klopp probably feels he has bigger issues to deal with especially since the goalkeeping coach he had at Dortmund is still at Dortmund.

Not long ago Klopp said Liverpool had two really, really, really good goalkeepers. A few mistakes later by Adam Bogdan and Klopp cut short Danny Ward’s successful loan spell from Aberdeen and put him straight in as backup keeper. Klopp doesn’t mess about. Ward was having an excellent season in Scotland where he was Aberdeen’s player of the season as they climbed to 2nd in the league and many have said he was the best keeper in Scotland that season.

You might say it’s only Scotland, but the standard of a league is less of a limitation on the quality of a goalkeeper than outfield players. The keeper still has to make saves, command his area, deal with physical forwards, poor environmental conditions etc. During his return interview Ward said that Klopp wanted him to challenge Mignolet for the goalkeeping role, this is the standard request by a manager to his 2nd choice keeper, but given Mignolet’s troubles one would think Ward will certainly get opportunities to impress, even if it’s only starts in Cup competitions to begin with. At just 22 years old, Ward is young and has time on his side.

If Mignolet doesn’t improve as Klopp hopes, or if indeed Klopp has already decided to get a new keeper in the summer, then fans may not be happy with having the Belgian sat on a cushy pay packet on the bench. But many big clubs have strong No.2 keepers on good contracts. Chelsea had both Cech & Courtois for a season, and now have Begovic. Man United still have Argentinian No.1 Sergio Romero & had the hugely successful Victor Valdes as understudies to David de Gea. Arsenal have Colombian international Ospina, who has over 60 caps, as their No.2 and Man City have the experienced Willy Cabellero. Mignolet is actually worse than most, some may say all, of these No.2s.

One thing for certain is Mignolet is aware of the criticism he’s received during his time at Liverpool, even commenting on it on social media, and knows that he needs to be a more dominant and commanding presence. Though there remains the concern that his words at press conferences and after signing his new deal seem completely anathema to his actual personality and performances.

“I know with a long-term contract, you get more responsibility – and I want to take up that role because I’m the sort of character that wants to be a leader, wants to speak in the dressing room and wants to help the defence.”

Klopp has said that Mignolet is a smart man, and he may well be, perhaps because Simon does recognise where he needs to improve and he’s been open to Klopp’s suggestions. But if he isn’t able to put it into action, there will be no happy ending for this Slumdog Mignolet at Liverpool FC.

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