Liverpool have given former West Ham goalkeeper Adrián the opportunity to replace Simon Mignolet as understudy to Alisson.
The Spanish keeper was a free agent having been released by West Ham at the end of last season and had been considering a return to his homeland with Real Valladolid.
But Liverpool moved swiftly to replace the Belgium-bound Mignolet and have signed the 32-year-old to provide experienced back-up to their established Brazil international.
Welcome to the Reds, Adrian! 🔴🔴🔴 #LFC pic.twitter.com/bAc2UNtTKI
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 5, 2019
“I’m feeling really happy,” said Adrián. “Really happy to be here and to work in this great club and start doing my stuff on the pitch as soon as possible. I’m very ambitious, I come here to try to win everything, to try to push Ali from the first minute and to make us better.
“Obviously I want to win titles. I come here to fight for all the competitions. We have many competitions ahead – we’re going to fight for it and try to get them. I’m looking forward to playing my first game at Anfield and to win as many games as we can.”
Jürgen Klopp had been reluctant to lose Mignolet this summer despite the Belgium international’s determination to move in search of regular first-team football after losing his place to Loris Karius and then Alisson.
Club Brugge’s offer of £6.4m rising to £8.2m with add-ons changed Liverpool’s stance, however, and Mignolet’s transfer was confirmed on Monday. He has signed a five-year deal.
Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson has backed manager Jürgen Klopp’s judgement in the transfer market after a quiet summer of transfers at Anfield. Liverpool have added just the youngsters Sepp Van Den Berg and Harvey Elliott to a squad that won the Champions League and finished second to Manchester City with the third-highest points total in Premier League history.
“If the manager hasn’t signed anyone then he knows better than everyone else,” said Henderson. “I think we’ve got a fantastic squad of players, we’ve showed that. We can use everybody, we’ve got big players [Naby Keïta and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] coming back from long-term injuries, which is like new signings as the manager says.
“We believe we’ve got a strong group in the changing room, a strong team, and we’ve just got to keep learning, keep improving on the training pitch, keep doing what we’ve been doing for a long time now, and keep staying hungry for more success.”
