Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that Caoimhin Kelleher will start the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.
And the Liverpool manager believes giving the Irish goalkeeper a start at Wembley will be key to keeping him at the club for the long term.
Kelleher has been the Reds' main keeper for the domestic cup competitions this season and kept a clean sheet against Arsenal on Thursday night as Klopp's side booked their place at Wembley next month with a 2-0 win.
Regular incumbent Alisson Becker started last week's goalless first-leg draw after returning from a COVID-19 diagnosis but Kelleher will be between the sticks in the national stadium against Thomas Tuchel's side.
"Caoimhin will play, if he is fit," Klopp said. "As a football manager you have to consider obviously a lot of things and one of the things is we consider Caoimhin as an outstanding goalie.
IAN DOYLE: Jurgen Klopp must keep squad promise at Wembley as new leader emerges
PAUL GORST: Arsenal fans get it badly wrong as Diogo Jota genius fires Liverpool to Wembley
"He's not a good goalie, an outstanding goalie, and we want to keep him here.
"And to keep him here you need to make sure of a few things. Before a season you need to think and talk about the different games he will get.
"It is all about performing of course. If he didn’t perform on the level he performed when he has played then I would maybe think differently.
"But he has shown he deserves all the trust and faith that we have in him. So that is the situation.
"I am a little bit surprised at the question because I didn’t think about it properly, but my idea at this moment is to play him, but let's see until then.
"I don’t see any reason why we should not do that. Caoimhin deserves that. He brought the team there.
"Last week against Arsenal I had to explain to Caoimhin why he is not playing.
"I usually do not do that for a Premier League, but the Carabao Cup, it was 'his competition' and I thought Alisson needed the game because he was lacking rhythm after COVID and all these kinds of things.
*Give us your LFC player ratings:
"What I really liked was that Caoimhin was not like, ‘oh yes I understand.’ he was like: ‘What? Why?’
"So he has matured in all departments and that is good."
Klopp also gave credit to Liverpool's head of goalkeeping, John Achterberg, for helping develop Kelleher into an international goalkeeper on the cusp of his first major final.
He added: "That is the goalie we want.
"I said before this is really the John Achterberg project.
"I have to say it because when Caoimhin and I came here there were not all the people in the club who thought, ‘oh yes Kelleher will be the next goalkeeper at the club.'
"There was one person and it was John. So here we go. If you have to buy this goalkeeper, then it is pretty expensive.
"So now we have the best in the world and a really, really good one. That is a good situation."
