The Loris Karius Liverpool nightmare is not over. It is poised to rumble on…and on. That’s the verdict of former Anfield midfielder Danny Murphy, who believes the Reds keeper may never get the chance to redeem himself following his Champions League horror show at the hands of Real Madrid. This is reflected in the betting odds on Nigerian portal Bettingsites.ng, where many Liverpool fans also believe the keeper will have to seek pastures new.
Not only has Karius has endured the ignominy of being blamed for the defeat that crushed Liverpool’s dream of collecting a sixth European Cup but he may never wear the No.1 jersey for the Merseysiders again, Murphy contends.
German guardian Karius made two massive mistakes in their 3-1 Champions League final loss to Zinedine Zidane’s giants in an absorbing showdown in Kiev.
First, he allowed Karim Benzema to steal in and tuck the ball home after the keeper inadvertently tried to throw it past the quick-thinking French attacker. Then, after Liverpool had clawed their way back to 1-1 through Sadio Mane’s goal, he fell victim to a stunning wonder goal from Madrid’s Gareth Bale.
It was then that his second calamitous blunder occurred as he seemed to flap and then palm in the ball from a long-range Bale effort. In truth it looked an easy stop.
The goal sealed the deal for the Spanish outfit and left Jurgen Klopp’s men in agony and without a trophy for a sixth year on the spin.
Now, Murphy believes, Klopp will be merciless and spend the summer searching the globe for a new keeper, meaning Karius’s days as a Liverpool player are numbered.
He said: “I feel really sorry for him. I really do. Unfortunately, I don’t think he’ll play in a Liverpool shirt again. It’s impossible for him.
“I think with the magnitude of the mistakes and the enormity of the game, the supporters will struggle with him being in goal for them and the continual ribbing he will get week in, week out, wherever he goes – that’s going to be huge pressure for him.
“I just can’t see him playing for Liverpool again. That’s not being dramatic, that’s a reality of the situation.”
Meanwhile, one player with an altogether brighter future at Anfield than Karius is young defender Andy Robertson. And he says that while the defeat will take a while to kick from the system, the Reds will be back and the loss will be but a distant memory.
He said: “The summer will be really tough, but I think all the lads – of course they’ve got the World Cup – we’ll all be itching to get back and just try and forget about this end.
“We can’t really have a hangover from it, though – we need to go again and keep kicking on next season and hopefully we can maybe get in one of these positions again.
“All the lads can be so, so proud of themselves and we’ve done all our families proud. It will take a while to get over but we’ll all stick together and hopefully it will make us that much stronger for next season.”
