By Jack Lusby, ThisIsAnfield.com
Which may be hyperbole, but it surely sums up the far-from-ideal warmup to his transfer to Liverpool that Giorgi Mamardashvili is experiencing this season at Valencia.
Actual Valladolid’s Karl Hein (2.3) is the one goalkeeper to concede extra targets per 90 in LaLiga than Mamardashvili (1.7), with the Arsenal loanee additionally the one stopper with a worse price of targets prevented with -8.9 to the Georgian’s -6.1.
Mamardashvili and Hein have the joint-worst save proportion in Spain’s high flight, each with 58.1 %, with Mamardashvili going through barely extra pictures heading in the right direction per save with 1.73 to Hein’s 1.71.
It isn’t all downcast, with the incoming Liverpool goalkeeper recording the league’s Eleventh-highest clear sheet proportion, with 5 shutouts in 23 video games (21.7%), however that’s significantly decrease than Alisson‘s report within the Premier League (38.1%) – which might place the Brazilian third within the much less demanding LaLiga.
After two excellent performances from Alisson within the eventual defeat to Paris Saint-Germain within the Champions League’s final 16, the prospect of Liverpool altering their No. 1 subsequent season appears baffling.
Alisson will flip 33 in October and is certainly vulnerable to harm, however a record-breaking night time within the first leg in Paris noticed Arne Slot himself describe him as “the perfect goalkeeper on this planet.”
You’ll be exhausting pressed to search out anybody on the crimson half of Merseyside who disagrees with that opinion, not least these inside Slot’s squad, with captain Virgil van Dijk and boyhood supporter Harvey Elliott each echoing that stance after these heroics on the Parc des Princes.
Few would argue with Jürgen Klopp’s perception that Caoimhin Kelleher is “the perfect No. 2 goalie on this planet as properly” both, and that solely provides to the uncomfortable scenario going through Liverpool in the summertime.
Mamardashvili is, little doubt, much better than the present marketing campaign has depicted him to be. Having remained with Valencia for a remaining season, he was dealt a tough hand with a membership carrying main monetary points and in disaster beneath Rubén Baraja.
Regardless of ending ninth within the earlier marketing campaign, Baraja was sacked in December after guiding Valencia to simply two wins of their first 17 league video games, with Mamardashvili taking part in 14 of these and conceding 22 targets in that point.
There was an upturn following the appointment of Carlos Corberán, with 4 wins, three attracts and solely three losses in his 10 league video games in cost thus far, however Valencia nonetheless discover themselves mired in a relegation battle.
The arrogance of their goalkeeper has clearly been affected, with 17 targets conceded in 9 video games beneath Corberán together with a 7-1 thrashing by the hands of Barcelona and an error resulting in a aim within the 2-1 win over Actual Valladolid final outing.
“I do know I’m not in my finest second now,” Mamardashvili wrote on Instagram after that sport, with the Spanish press left debating whether or not the Georgian Participant of the Season for 2023/24 – voted above Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – needs to be dropped for backup Stole Dimitrievski.
Liverpool’s palms have been tied when it got here to leaving their £29 million signing on the Mestalla for an additional season, with Mamardashvili reluctant to affix instantly because of the presence of Alisson and a mortgage elsewhere blocked by Premier League guidelines.
However his preparation for the transfer to Anfield couldn’t have gone a lot worse – and the microscope will probably be on the 24-year-old from his first day on the AXA Coaching Centre.
Put merely, supporters are unlikely to take kindly to Alisson being usurped as No. 1 and plenty of would argue that Kelleher needs to be stored in place because the Brazilian’s long-term successor.
“The membership made the choice to get one other goalkeeper,” was Kelleher’s response to the Mamardashvili deal, when talking in September. “From the skin trying in, it appears to be like like they’ve decided to go in one other route.”
The optics aren’t encouraging and no matter Mamardashvili’s expertise – these inside the membership’s recruitment employees have been satisfied a deal was value pushing by regardless of any upheaval – he faces an uphill battle to persuade these watching on that he’s definitely worth the threat of unsettling the perfect goalkeeper on this planet for.
Liverpool’s hierarchy will view the signing as one other instance of long-term planning and if it comes off it needs to be applauded as such, with Alisson’s contract set to run out in 2026 and golf equipment in Saudi Arabia .
That’s significantly the case given the summer time forward, with Van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold all into the ultimate months of their offers and, if they’re to go away, would all must be changed in a single switch window.
However it represents an enormous roll of the cube for the membership in backing Mamardashvili, and we are able to solely hope this may show his annus horribilis in Valencia earlier than reclaiming world-class kind within the elite environment of Liverpool.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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