LFC Forever 2016/17

Fairytale of Liverpool

Mignolet was sat putting his trainers on, dressed after a tough, productive training session. He still had a smile on his face from the night before.

He looked around, tying his lace blind. "Alex... you seen Loris?" he asked their fellow goalkeeper, realising he wasn't there.

He was probably still in the shower, or he was taking that long to dry and style his golden locks. He couldn't show his face with messy hair, fair enough Mignolet was used to that with the rest of the squad but Karius needed to hurry up.

Manninger shrugged. "Not sure he came in with us."

They'd trained in a group with the academy kids and their coaches so it was possible he'd been overlooked.

"I'll go look for him." Mignolet took off, ignoring Manninger's lack of concern.

Mignolet checked the showers and the toilets, no sign, he had to be on the field unless he'd snuck out. No. He couldn't be that upset over the situation that he'd avoid his friends, could he?

He saw someone kicking a ball against one of those metal players, attempting to catch the rebounds. He jogged up shouting "Loris... Loris!" and getting no answer.

"Karius!" he barked. "Come on, we've got to go."

"No, I need to put in the extra work." Karius kept on with his attempts to train, without looking to Mignolet.

"You don't, there's nothing wrong with your goalkeeping." he insisted catching his breath.

"You would say that, you don't want me to improve so you can keep your place." He took a particularly strong swing at the ball in misplaced frustration and it pounded off the metal so fast neither of them could get it.

"That's not true, I don't want you out here on your own, getting injured or something." he didn't know what to say, of course he wanted to be first pick but not at Karius' expense, not through Karius' mistakes.

It wasn't like he'd asked Klopp to drop the younger for him. It was the necessary thing to be done, Middlesborough and especially Everton were not matches they could afford to lose, title race or not.

"You get the fans back on side and I'm just the let down they want rid of."

"Get a grip, man. Klopp's got every faith in you or you wouldn't be here, you don't adapt to the league over night, that's all." Mignolet assured him.

"How am I supposed to do that when I can't play?"

"You'll get the cups."

"I came here for the Premier League, not domestic cups."

"You were losing us points, we can't afford it at the top of the league."

The Premier League allowed no room for error, Mignolet had experienced that first hand and he didn't want that again, not because this kid needs more time.

"You lost two finals last season." Karius responded, attempting to upset Mignolet. "How you're still here I'll never know."

"I know and we're all using that pain to get better. You're just being a brat because it's not as easy here as you thought." Mignolet spat back.

The whole team was carrying that pain, none of them needed reminding. All they could do was work hard to make this season much better, without looking back too much.

"I'm not!"

"Having a go at pundits, forcing the manager to stand up for you and we all saw the looks you were giving Klopp in the Boro match." Mignolet pointed out.