Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez wasted no time when chest-bumping his way into Caoimhin Kelleher to congratulate his goalkeeper.
Kelleher had just denied Kylian Mbappe from the penalty spot in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Right-back Conor Bradley did the same in appreciation for the Republic of Ireland international. Kelleher had just helped preserve Liverpool’s clean sheet by palming away the Real Madrid forward’s spot-kick in a game Arne Slot’s team went on to win 2-0. Andy Robertson, who gave the penalty away against Madrid and in the previous game against Southampton, said he owes Kelleher dinner.
It was the third penalty stop the 26-year-old had made in the space of 13 days and only his fourth-ever penalty save in the course of a game (three for Liverpool, one for Ireland). The other six penalty saves he has pulled off for Liverpool came in three Carabao Cup shootouts — with Kelleher helping Liverpool reach the final and win the competition in 2021-22 and 2023-24.
First, he kept out Dani Ceballos’s penalty as Liverpool overcame Arsenal in the fourth round of the competition in October 2019. He then stopped both Luke Thomas and Ryan Bertrand of Leicester City in a quarter-final shootout victory in December 2021. He failed to make a single stop in the 2022 final, but stepped up himself to score against Chelsea before watching counterpart Kepa Arrizabalaga send his over the bar — the 22nd penalty of a marathon shootout — to hand Liverpool the trophy. Later that year Kelleher again showed his prowess when completing a hat-trick of stops to deny Derby County trio Conor Hourihane, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Dobbin. That night was his first game for Liverpool’s first-team since the final in February.
Right now Kelleher is on a roll in more ways than one. In the absence of Alisson he has continued to build on the “best No 2 in the world” tagline bestowed on him by Jurgen Klopp. And in the past fortnight, he has also proven himself to be a burgeoning expert in the field of penalties.
Joel Pohjanpalo of Finland found that out during Ireland’s 1-0 win in the Nations League as Kelleher not only saved his penalty but smothered the rebound. Southampton’s Adam Armstrong managed to squeeze a rebounded effort underneath Kelleher after the Irishman initially denied the striker during Liverpool’s 3-2 win in the Premier League.
Then came one of the world’s best players, in Mbappe. The World Cup winner with France looked like he wanted to be anywhere but Anfield as the cameras zoomed into him for a close-up after Kelleher firmly beat his strike, which would have levelled the game at 1-1, away to safety.
“For me, I don’t really look at the player too much,” Kelleher told TNT Sports, when asked about his process. “I felt confident. I’ve saved two in the last week or so. So yeah, I was confident and thankfully I went the right way again.”
One noticeable thing is that Kelleher does not call upon the dark arts to assist him.
“Every goalkeeper is different but the thing that stands out with Kelleher is how calm and patient he is in those situations,” The Athletic’s goalkeeping analyst Matt Pyzdrowski says. “He stands mostly still the entire time. He is the opposite of someone like Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa and Argentina), who dances on the line and really tries to kind of psych up the shooter with a lot of trash talking, physical movements and gestures.”
Kelleher shows composure. He uses an old trick of the goalkeeping trade by placing his hands above his head to fill up his goal and make it appear smaller.
“But then once the player is coming down to make their approach and shoot that’s when he gets into a more natural position where he’s leaning forward and ready to shoot himself towards the ball.”
Kelleher waits until the taker has their standing leg planted and their shooting leg about to kick before picking a direction to move in.
“I know from my own experience a lot of players I played against, they want the keeper to move,” Pyzdrowski says. “A lot of offensive players today are watching the keeper to see them make a move and then when they don’t move, they panic and maybe don’t get the best hit on the ball. Kelleher’s save against Madrid and Mbappe (who pauses his run up in the below still) is a great example of that.
“Kelleher just reads Mbappe so well and is patient. He waits and waits and then finally goes as Mbappe is about to strike the ball. At that point, it’s already too late for Mbappe.”
It is not just his stillness that has made Kelleher increasingly formidable, but how he stands on his toes before the taker is about to shoot and launches one foot off his line at the precise time the ball is kicked.
He also shifts his weight forward, which helps exaggerate his eventual step forward. It gives him energy and power to drive outwards towards the ball and make a stop.
Against Finland he did not have to move far to deny Pohjanpalo, who struck the ball centrally. But you can clearly see Kelleher doing a Smooth Criminal-style anti-gravity lean forward to ensure his body weight is already shifting before he picks which way to dive.
“Part of it is the timing and how he’s trying to load for his dive, but also so he can get a favourable angle to save the ball,” Pyzdrowski adds. “His strength in his legs and ability to kind of push off as hard and accurate as he does is not something every goalkeeper can do.
“You’ve seen some very good goalkeepers who during open play are excellent, but they never really figure out how to react to penalties. Kelleher has been put in a lot of situations in the shootouts and faced a lot of penalties. That’s how you get experience and confidence.”
As seen below, he even stopped Armstrong’s penalty against Southampton, only for the striker to score from the rebound.
Most of Kelleher’s saves have been low or midriff-height, hit into the centre, left or right. Like most goalkeepers, if a player shoots into the top corners it limits the opportunity of making a stop. But his ability to get his hands far across as well as pushing out of his goal to meet the ball has proved a successful routine.
“The other thing that he does very well is he often goes with both hands,” Pyzdrowski says, while reviewing Kelleher’s saves against Leicester, which included one from Luke Thomas (shown below). “And then he has a flexibility in his hands that, if he needs to extend with one, he can.”
“One of his saves against Leicester (in the Carabao Cup quarter-final shootout that Liverpool won 5-4, in December 2021) down to his left shows this brilliantly.
“He goes with two hands. He’s kind of diving up and then just miraculously kind of shoots his left hand down and palms the ball out (as seen in the save from Bertrand below). Having that strength and flexibility is huge. But again, I think that’s the key to him going forward because if he does kind of a neutral dive to the side he won’t be able to keep that out.
“They are typical shots that you’ll get a hand on and the ball will still go into the net. But because he really throws himself forward every time, it’s a huge advantage. The angle where you meet the ball with the wrist and where you’re able to then flex the ball away with just a little swing of the wrist around the post is something you can only do when you go forward.
“In open play it’s important but in penalty situations where the angles have a really big impact on what happens both for the shooter and the goalkeeper, it is really important too. So I think for him to be able to make that step forward and kind of shoot his hands in front of the line is really key for him.”
For Kelleher, training alongside players such as Mohamed Salah, whose penalty against Madrid hit the post, will have helped too. Pyzdrowksi says: “I know for sure that they sit in the locker room after training or after matches and talk about these things. When you have a shooter who is as lethal as Salah, I guarantee you that they talk about it and Kelleher probably asks for little tips from him on what he thinks about when he’s going to shoot. So he can obviously use that to his advantage when he faces other top strikers and opponents.”
Penalties are psychological battles and each time Kelleher wins one he is building his confidence and a wider reputation. He also enters the pitch equipped like all modern-day goalkeepers with the data analysis of penalty takers imprinted on his mind.
“When you save enough and you start to become known as a penalty expert, it gives you even more confidence in those situations,” Pyzdrowski adds. “And that whole psyche plays on the shooter’s mind too. And when you make a high-profile save in the Champions League like Kelleher, then it’s something that people are going to pay attention to.”
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
