It’s fair to say that when it comes to goalkeepers at Liverpool, Simon Mignolet won’t go down as one of the most fondly remembered.
The Belgian arrived from Sunderland in 2013 for £9.54m but struggled to establish himself as the top-level goalkeeper that the Reds wanted during his time at the club.
He was later ousted as Liverpool number one by Loris Karius before they were both eventually pushed to the side by Alisson.
It was that which led Mignolet to return to his homeland two years ago, electing to drop down from the Premier League and make a move to Club Brugge for £6.3m.
Since then, he’s put in a number of impressive performances for the Belgian side, both domestically and in the Champions League.
Things aren’t going very well of late, though, with Club Brugge in poor form and Mignolet finding himself as the focus of the ire from people such as journalist Filip Joos.
“You can see why he failed at Liverpool. You have to be able to say that now: that he is too little for that level. He has that kind of thing going on too often.
“I often sat in the stadium at Liverpool and heard the murmur rising from the stands when he got the ball.
“At the time, I didn’t think that was generous of the crowd, but now I understand. It wasn’t a mistake for Liverpool to go for a better goalkeeper than Mignolet, even though Alisson has had moments like that too.
“Mignolet has top moments, and then he grabs great balls. I remember a practice match with the Red Devils (Belgium) against Italy before the 2016 European Championship.
“Mignolet was phenomenal then, on the level of Courtois. He can reach that level, but he has too many moments that Courtois doesn’t have. Also, last year he had such moments at Club Brugge. Only Club won then and not now.”
