Ben Foster has been speaking about Newcastle’s goalkeeping situation going into Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final. Many people expect Loris Karius will start between the sticks, but Foster, speaking to TalkSPORT, thinks Mark Gillespie could be in with a shout.
Foster doesn’t believe the situation is as bad as being made out
Ever since that fateful red card left referee Anthony Taylor’s pocket on Saturday evening, the spotlight has very much been shone on former Reds ‘keeper, Loris Karius with everybody expecting the German to be given the nod to start in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.
With Nick Pope suspended and Martin Dubravka cup-tied, Eddie Howe’s remaining goalkeeping options are Loris Karius and forgotten man, Mark Gillespie. Neither player has made a competitive appearance for the Magpies under Eddie Howe with Gillespie only having three Carabao Cup appearances to his name from back in the 2020/21 season.
Former England stopper Foster spoke to TalkSPORT on Wednesday leaping to the defence of Karius given that the rhetoric around him is always about his Champions League final clangers rather than all the good he did for Liverpool leading up to that game.
Speaking to Laura Woods and Ally McCoist, Foster said: “I think people need to remember and realise that Loris Karius is still a very, very good goalkeeper.” Going on to suggest that all the negativity that followed him around after that game has likely affected him.
But then Foster went on to say “It’s not even a given he’s going to be playing, they’ve got Mark Gillespie there who I know is a very good goalkeeper himself.” The classic goalkeepers’ union there, sticking up for one of his own.
Lack of game time is the issue
The fact is, Newcastle fans don’t really know if he’s right, we’ve not seen him in action since 2020 when fans weren’t even in the stadiums.
It’s hard to imagine that Eddie Howe would keep him around if he didn’t feel he was up to the task, though, especially given that he’s let Martin Dubravka and Karl Darlow leave on loan this season. Surely he’d have moved on Gillespie ahead of these if he lacked confidence in the Geordie ‘keeper.
With respect to Ben Foster, though, I think we all know that it is going to be Karius who starts on Sunday. Eddie Howe hasn’t outright said so, but he has answered a lot of questions about him and hasn’t once suggested that he’s not in line to start.
Whoever starts will likely have some rust to shake off, so hopefully they can do that quickly.
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