Liverpool £60m transfer difference shows how Jurgen Klopp made right call

Sometimes in life you get what you pay for. And rarely has that maxim been more accurate for Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool than with the position of goalkeeper.

Witness the contrasting fortunes of Loris Karius and Alisson Becker, both brought to the club by the Reds boss to ostensibly become the number one goalkeeper.

While Karius is presently looking for a new club, Alisson today celebrates four years of an Anfield career in which he has already scooped every major honour and cemented his position as arguably the finest keeper in the game.

The difference between the pair? Well, about £60million for a start.

Karius was one of Klopp's first significant signings in the summer of 2016, snapped up for £4.7m after an impressive season with Mainz. At that price, it wasn't an expensive gamble, with Simon Mignolet managing to largely fend off the German for 18 months before Karius was installed as permanent first-choice halfway through his second season.

The mixing and matching between the sticks had caused inevitable confusion among a Liverpool defence that was regarded as a weak point of an otherwise strong and improving team under Klopp. But even when the boss plumped for Karius - and bolstered by the arrival of Virgil van Dijk at centre-back - greater consistency at the back didn't transmit into such performances between the sticks, leading to the nightmare of Kiev and the Champions League final.

Liverpool and Klopp grappled with keeping faith in Karius until a poor start to pre-season prompted them to act. The impact of Van Dijk had made it clear spending big can result in instant and transformative rewards. So having flirted with the transfer, Liverpool made a definitive move to snaffle Alisson from Roma for a fee that