[Samuelsson]

All of this goalie talk reminds me of my football (soccer) team. For years, we (Liverpool) have had the same goalie coach, John Achterberg. When he first came in, our goalkeeper back then, Pepe Reina, appeared to regress to the point that he was shipped out. We then bought another 'keeper in Simon Mignolet. He seemed to have a good couple of seasons at his former club, Sunderland, before he again, seemed to regress to the point that we bought another 'keeper in Loris Karius.

At this point I should point out that Mignolet cost us I think £12m, and Karius maybe £5m. Relatively low amounts for a goalkeeper.

Mignolet and Karius shared duties for a year, before last season Karius took over full-time. The season was OK at best for Karius; sometimes he was good, sometimes he was bad. But people always pointed to the coach, Achterberg, and said 'well 3 keepers have stayed the same or gotten worse under him - he's the common denominator, therefore he needs to go'.

And then the Champions League final came around, where Liverpool played Real Madrid. If you know, you know, but for those who don't, Karius had an absolute stinker. Completely bottled it. Our manager, Jurgen Klopp, had had enough. He shipped Karius out on a 2-year loan to Turkey, the relative arse-end of footballing ability, and a figurative graveyard where bad footballers spend their last days.

This summer, he spent £65m on a goalkeeper, Alisson from Roma. The most expensive goalkeeper ever signed (until Chelsea broke the record again a couple of weeks later).

Since then, in the league (because they're the only stats I can be arsed to look up), we've played 10, and conceded 4 goals. That's 6 games where he didn't let any goals in. Put simply, he's one of the best goalkeepers in the world.

Blame the coaches all you like, but they can only work with whatever talent is there; they can't polish a turd. Sure, obviously some coaches are better than others; but the gulf in ability is not that stark. Quite simply, sometimes you just have to stop shopping around the bargain bin and go out and buy top-shelf.