Roy Keane and Gary Neville raised their concerns over former Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius' match sharpness as he made his much-publicised return in the Carabao Cup final.
Manchester United were taking on Newcastle United with the Magpies looking to win their first piece of domestic silverware since 1955. Prior to the showpiece match at Wembley, the North East side were dealt a tricky hand as Nick Pope was shown a straight red card against the Reds during their 2-0 defeat at St James' Park.
Pope would miss Sunday's cup final against the Red Devils as a result and the Newcastle manager handed Karius his first appearance for the Toon Army since arriving in the summer. A lot of the build-up was focused on Karius' lack of first-team action since he made two costly mistakes in the 2018 Champions League defeat to Real Madrid.
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The 29-year-old was handed his first appearance since 2021, during his time as a Liverpool loanee, but the former Man United duo highlighted his lack of first-team action ahead of his return.
"The goalkeepers now take part in possession sessions because they are expected to be involved in the build-up. Obviously goalkeepers had to kick it in our day, but the expectations of goalkeepers now is off the scale," said Neville.
"This is a massive day for Karius - to play his first competitive game in a long time, the sharpness and the feeling of it, he has never played at Wembley before. There has been a lot of well wishes, but that won’t help him when he steps out on that pitch.
Keane insisted that the real focus was on his shot-stopping capabilities, he added: "I wouldn’t worry about his distribution, it is about saving the ball and that is the big focus on the goalkeeper."
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