Liverpool star admits he finds his current role "difficult" - he may have to leave the club

Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher admitted he finds his role as Liverpool’s no.2 goalkeeper “difficult”.

Kelleher, whose spot kick won Liverpool the Carabao Cup at Wembley in February, had to this time display penalty-saving nous when the Reds took on Derby in the Carabao Cup.

The Republic of Ireland shot-stopper repelled penalties from Conor Hourihane, Craig Forsyth and Lewis Dobbin, with the latter save allowing Harvey Elliott to slot home the winning penalty and send Liverpool through to the fourth round.

In Kelleher’s eight EFL Cup games the Reds have won all four penalty shootouts they have been involved in, while the 23-year-old has now saved a club-record six spot kicks.

Kelleher is frustrated by role

While Kelleher is appreciated at Liverpool, with Jurgen Klopp having once labelled him as the “best no.2 in the world”, the Irishman will naturally want more game time.

After the game, Kelleher alluded to the balancing act of wanting to play more games and learning from one of the best goalkeepers in the profession - Alisson Becker.

Speaking to the club website he said: “I approach every day like I’m going to play. I have to be ready to play—anything can happen at any time.

“I’ve trained with the goalie group every day, it’s a really good group to work with so I enjoy going in every day and trying to work hard.

“At the same time as well it’s difficult not getting the games, but like I say the more we do well in cup competitions like this the more game time I can hopefully get.”

While undoubtedly talented, Kelleher is unlikely to displace Alisson anytime soon and will need to leave the Reds to play week in, week out.

Nevertheless, the Liverpool boss was happy with the goalkeeper’s match-winning performance on Wednesday.

The Liverpool boss told the BBC: "He is absolutely exceptional. He's a modern goalie. As calm as you like. He can play football and on top of that, he can keep the ball out of the net.

"I am over the moon for him. When he smiles you know it means a lot to him. There are still a lot of goalkeeping years to come from him."