Manchester United are among a number of Premier League clubs looking to sign a goalkeeper this summer.
And they could do a lot worse than Liverpool’s backup Caoimhin Kelleher.
While a switch to Old Trafford has proven challenging over the years, few can deny that United are in need of a new keeper – not even Ruben Amorim himself.
“We need to improve in all positions, including the goalkeeper,” Amorim said last month.
“If our team scores more goals and our forwards perform better, we will also defend better, but sometimes players underperform during a season.
“We’ll make our assessments at the end of the season.”
Constant conversations about transfers
The reality is that if United really do want to replace Andre Onana, they will have already begun the search.
“There isn’t a football club, especially not a football club at that level and scale, that is sitting down in the summer time to start thinking about that,” Stephen Smith tells The i Paper. Smith is chief executive of Kitman Labs, a performance intelligence company that analyses data for a number of Premier League teams.
“Those conversations happen at like, Christmas time. There are constant conversations.”
Chelsea and Newcastle United have both been mooted as possible destinations, although at 26, Kelleher is on the old side for a BlueCo signing.
Nottingham Forest are said to have had a bid rejected in January, despite the fact that Matz Sels is on track to win the Golden Glove.
Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Leeds United and West Ham have all been linked, too.
United have other targets but they would do well to move for Kelleher before others do.
‘Definitely ready to be a No 1’
Kelleher has no shortage of high-profile admirers. In goalkeeping terms, there can be no greater backing than that of Peter Schmeichel.
“He has a great personality, understands his role, but he is a very ambitious young man, and he’s definitely ready to be a No 1,” the United great said in December.
Kelleher made his debut for Liverpool six years ago, but remained a virtually unused back-up to Alisson until last season.
Since the start of the 2023-24 campaign though, he has made 46 appearances, reaching a high point with a Champions League clean sheet in November against Real Madrid that included a Kylian Mbappe penalty save.
But it has not moved him up the pecking order. Alisson will remain first-choice with Mamardashvili due to serve as understudy at Anfield. It leaves Kelleher surplus to requirements, but he has already proved himself more than capable of performing at the highest level.
All transfers from Liverpool to Man Utd
- August 1912: Tom Chorlton
- September 1920: Tom Miller
- February 1929: Tommy Reid
- January 1938: Ted Savage
- November 1938: Allenby Chilton
A ball-playing goalkeeper
That is something Onana has rarely done. Only three keepers have made more errors leading to goals in the Premier League this season and the Cameroonian has several more to his name in the Europa League, with both hands and feet.
Ironically, Onana was purportedly signed to help United pass out from the back under Erik ten Hag, and any replacement would need to provide that skillset as Amorim requires the same.
That makes Kelleher a good fit, since Liverpool play tend to short, and Kelleher has a 100 per cent completion rate on passes under 30 yards this season (sampled over 246 such passes).
But Smith insists that more granular data is required to prove whether the Irishman is merely playing safe with his distribution or has genuine accuracy in his armoury.
“What we would want to do is go and layer that [data] and ask ‘How long has it taken him to be able to make those passes?’” he says.
“So if it takes him 15 seconds with the ball in hand to be able to make those, maybe he’s a very safe passer.
“If he’s able to make that distribution within five seconds, he’s not a safe passer, he’s actually just really accurate.”
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‘Does he dominate the space?’
In 33 league appearances, Onana has just nine “high claims”. Kelleher is not far behind on six, but in a third of the games.
“Claiming is a really important aspect for goalkeepers as well,” Smith adds.
“How much do they dominate the space and the area around them? When crosses are coming in, are they sitting back on their line, watching what’s going on, waiting for a defender to do the work and clear the ball? Or are they getting out there and dominating that space?
“That’s becoming more and more important.”
All that being said, Kelleher moving to United would be a rare piece of business: no Liverpool player has moved to Old Trafford since Allenby Chilton in 1938.
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