LIVERPOOL'S new first-choice goalkeeper Loris Karius has been backed to adapt to life in the Premier League by Reds boss Jurgen Klopp.
The 23-year-old German has been preferred to Simon Mignolet for the previous four fixtures and has endured some hairy moments, notably struggling with high balls into the box and surviving a misplaced pass to Manchester United's Paul Pogba on Monday.
West Brom manager Tony Pulis will surely have taken notice of the weaknesses Karius has displayed so far and there may be several aerial tests coming his way at Anfield this weekend. However, Klopp is content with Karius' early displays and will not discourage him from altering his distribution style in a week where that aspect of a keeper's game again came under the microscope following Claudio Bravo's Barcelona gaffe.
"He's had a very good start," Klopp said of Karius.
"We watched him for a long time, especially in the last two years in the Bundesliga. He was outstanding, but he is still a young boy, for a goalkeeper especially. He collected experience, but this is, of course, something else here in the Premier League. It's a different kind of play in general in the Premier League and style of play in our specific case.
"Of course he has to improve and he can improve but, with the start, I feel quite comfortable, I think it's good. It was not perfect, but there was one situation with Dejan [Lovren] together with the passing, but things like this happen and more serious things like this happen for other goalkeepers that are more experienced. If you want a goalkeeper who plays football, then you take the risks that, sometimes, the ball is bouncing in a different way. Everything's okay."
Monday's dour stalemate with United was just the third game in eight in which Liverpool have dropped points and they will be expected to accrue plenty from a sequence against West Brom, Crystal Palace, Watford, Southampton, Sunderland, Bournemouth, West Ham and Middlesbrough prior to Christmas.
However, it was in such contests where Klopp's side often slipped up last term and the German has pleaded for patience when his team meet one of the division's more shrewd operators: "West Brom are a very, very experienced team with a very experienced manager," said Klopp, whose team drew both fixtures with the Baggies last season.
"They don't come here and want to make it easy for us or make it easy for our crowd to enjoy it. They want a result and I respect this. We need to find a way to play them, that's all. For this, we need to be kind of angry but, in the same moment, we need to be patient again, all of us, the crowd and the players. All that they are doing in defending is to make us feel uncomfortable, not to do what we want to do.
"Early goals would help, three early goals would really help! But they are really experienced, are very good at defending and have had no high [losses] until now."
