Simon Mignolet Can Make a Difference for Liverpool This Season

How easy is it to replace 394 appearances, 176 clean sheets, a status as one of the figureheads and symbols of the club and a presence which has reassured Liverpool fans for the past eight years? The Reds are about to find out.

With Pepe Reina leaving Merseyside to link up with Rafael Benitez again at Napoli, the path has been cleared for Belgium’s Simon Mignolet to begin his Reds career in earnest as the club’s No. 1 goalkeeper―something that you suspect he always knew he’d be signing up for when he joined the club from Sunderland in June.

Ask a follower of the Premier League to name last season’s top three goalkeepers, and the name of Sunderland’s Mignolet wouldn’t be far from the conversation, perhaps alongside Manchester United’s David de Gea and Stoke’s Asmir Begovic.

Reina’s presence in that same conversation was usually a given during Benitez’s time at Anfield, but as the club’s standards have slipped over the past few years so his seem to have too.

The Spanish goalkeeper can rightly be regarded as one of the best custodians to have ever graced the club, but as time has passed there has always been a sense that a change was inevitable.

In Liverpool’s non-Champions League times of austerity, Reina’s status as one of the club’s highest earners was hardly helping matters either. He had by no means lost his way, but it suddenly became apparent that the Reds could bring in a younger stopper with the potential to achieve as much as the former Barcelona and Villarreal man.

Now joining a very different club from the one that his predecessor left Spain for eight years ago, Mignolet rose to prominence at Belgian Second Division side Sint-Truiden, helping them to promotion and then being named as Belgium’s goalkeeper of the year in the 2009/10 season, the year he helped his unfashionable club to fifth in the top division.

A £2m move to Sunderland beckoned, and he was thrown straight into the team upon his arrival on Wearside, impressing many.

A battle for a first-team place with the Scottish international Craig Gordon―still the most expensive ever British goalkeeper―ensued, but Gordon’s injury problems and Mignolet’s fine form meant that it was the Belgian who emerged as the winner, and so began three years which ensured that the Sunderland fans took him to their hearts.

He played in every one of the Mackems’ Premier League games last season, with his fine string of saves ensuring a permanent place on many a highlight reel.

Now at Liverpool, he’ll find that his performances and actions will be analysed with more detail than ever before―even during the 13 international caps he’s picked up on the way to becoming Belgium’s No. 1.

Tall, athletic and quick to come off his line to snuff out danger, Mignolet can make a difference behind a Liverpool defence which will once again seek to build from the back in the forthcoming season.

Brendan Rodgers will have been on the lookout for a goalkeeper who is comfortable with that style of play, and although Reina is one of the best around at distribution, there are raw materials there for Mignolet to follow that path too.

An intelligent character who speaks five languages and holds a degree in politics, as reported by the Daily Mail, the Belgian’s freshness can make a difference for the Reds this season as they seek to catch up to the elite.

With his Premier League presence already firmly established, there will be no problems adapting to life in the country in the way that was seen in de Gea’s performances at Manchester United during his first season.

Having said that, playing in goal for Liverpool is a lot different to performing the same job for Sunderland, but Mignolet has shown nothing to suggest that he won’t be up to that challenge.

And to perhaps rack up numbers similar to the man he’s replacing.