Arne Slot has said he cannot guarantee Caoimhín Kelleher will start the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle despite the goalkeeper’s contribution to Liverpool’s third final appearance in four seasons.
Kelleher started Liverpool’s past two finals in the competition against Chelsea, keeping a clean sheet in both and scoring a penalty in the shootout victory over Thomas Tuchel’s team in 2022. The Republic of Ireland international had been assured of a starting role at Wembley by the former manager Jürgen Klopp as reward for his performances in previous rounds.
The 26-year-old has featured against West Ham, Southampton and Tottenham in this season’s run but Slot insists there are no guaranteed places for Wembley. “We never know what the situation is around a final: how fit everyone is, do they need a game, yes or no?” said the Liverpool head coach. “I cannot guarantee anything. I never guarantee anything to players so far in advance and that is not what I am going to do now.”
Slot’s selection policy for the Carabao Cup gives Kelleher hope of starting his third final on 16 March, however. “Almost every time we have played the second goalkeeper in the League Cup,” he said. “At Brighton it was Vitos [Jaros] because at that moment Caoimhín was the No 1 as Alisson was injured.
“The one exception was Tottenham away [in the semi-final first leg] where Alisson was coming back from injury and I felt he needed some extra playing time. Three days later we played the Accrington Stanley game and then three days after that we played Nottingham Forest. I felt it was better for him to play against Tottenham, then have a week’s rest and then play Forest. It was more with the idea of being best prepared for the league. Yesterday was a League Cup game so that meant Caoimhín was in goal and he absolutely deserved to be in goal for everything he did this season.”
Slot will make more changes for Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Plymouth. Trent Alexander-Arnold will again be absent with the thigh injury that caused him to miss Thursday’s semi-final defeat of Spurs and is also a doubt for Wednesday’s derby at Everton.
“It’s not going to take months or even weeks but that game is only three days after Plymouth, so let’s wait and see if he is available,” Slot said. “We also have to look at the long term. We don’t want to take any risks with so many games coming up but if he’s fit then of course we will use him.”
