Liverpool: Time is up for Loris Karius

Reuters/Paul Burrows

Sympathy and forgiveness, anger and despair. Two sets of terms at ends of the emotional spectrum, though Loris Karius has somehow merged them. 

26th May 2018. 

It's a day Karius, anyone who is affiliated with Liverpool Football Club - or anyone who follows football, for that matter - will never forget. 

I was at the game and, while I'm not a Liverpool fan per se, the atmosphere in Kiev was electric. The magnitude of the occasion was off the charts. It was hard not to get behind Liverpool that day. Fans were expectant: this really was their year, their chance. 

The stage was set, the hard work had been put in. Just one more game, one more nail-biting 90-minute period. The trophy was there for the taking and, while Real Madrid were favourites, anything could have happened that night.

Yes, Mohamed Salah went off injured early. Yes, the outcome (at least from a Liverpool perspective) was on his shoulders. Losing Salah was untimely but did it legislate for what happened in the second half? No. Did it, should it, have impacted Karius? No.

45 minutes to taint a career

Modern day football is, as we know, constantly on a knife-edge. Fine margins all over the pitch.

When you're a goalkeeper, though, you can't get away with a bad game, you can't escape or pardon howling errors. Fans of any team, let alone the one you play for, will never forget. 

Karius' display in that second half in Kiev was one I, and 99% of the football world, had never seen before.