The Reds will have three new faces arriving at the AXA training centre come the start of pre-season and they are working on making sure Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez become the fourth and the fifth.<\/p>\n
For Kelleher, for a long time it seemed like Giorgi Mamardashvili would be his replacement. But it seems like long-term, the Reds may be replacing the Republic of Ireland international with a different player, but of the same class and quality.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Fabrizio Romano confirms BIG Florian Wirtz update<\/p>\n
One of the big factors why Kelleher was regarded as such a brilliant no.2 was because he was able to come in and replace Alisson in the Brazilian\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
Kelleher was able to do this due to his composure on the ball and brilliant reflexes.<\/p>\n
His composure on the ball came from playing as a striker in Ireland until the age of 13-years-old, when he switched into playing as a goalkeeper instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a very good centre-forward and represented his county in that position,\u201d Eddie Harrington told the Liverpool ECHO back in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe only went in goal at Under-14s level and that was only about seven years ago. That\u2019s a massive transition. We taught him to pass it out from the back but he probably had the footwork from being an outfielder,\u201d Harrington continued.<\/p>\n
Now Liverpool are about to sign a player very similar to Kelleher, who went through the same journey at around the same age.<\/p>\n
The Reds have confirmed the arrival of Armin Pecsi from Puskas Akademia. Like Kelleher, he is a brilliant shot-stopper with great reflexes, who prevented 14.33 goals in the Hungarian top flight last season.<\/p>\n
But even more interestingly, like Kelleher, Pecsi also played as a forward at a younger age and learned the foundations of the game as an outfielder before switching to become a goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a long time I played up front, I also played in goal, but I preferred to play as a striker,\u201d Pecsi told FEOL.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven at the age of maybe 11 or 12, I was still playing in both striker and goalkeeper,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen there came a point when I was told it would be good to decide which I wanted to do, and I decided to stay in goal and continue there. I decided on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
In this sense, Liverpool might have just signed their Kelleher 2.0 and have already replaced the beloved fan favourite at Anfield in the matter of days.<\/p>\n
All for the paltry sum of \u00a31.5m, Anfield Watch understands. There\u2019s no denying this is the perfect deal.<\/p>\n
Exclusive: Why Liverpool have gone ALL in on Armin Pecsi<\/p>\n
Hughes is playing a blinder this summer. Credit must be given to him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 This is shaping up to be a brilliant summer for Liverpool. \u00a0 The Reds will have three new faces arriving at the AXA training centre come the start of pre-season and they are working on making sure Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez become the fourth and the fifth. \u00a0 For Kelleher, for a long [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":69708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"yoast_head":"\n