Rodgers and Toure tip Mignolet to bounce back
Brendan Rodgers and Kolo Toure have both backed Simon Mignolet to recover from his mistake in Liverpool’s draw against Aston Villa.
The Belgium goalkeeper’s error, missing Gabriel Agbonlahor's cross, allowed compatriot Christian Benteke to head the away side into a 2-0 lead at Anfield, before goals from Daniel Sturridge and Steven Gerrard rescued a point for the Reds.
Rodgers spent £9 million on the 25-year-old shot-stopper from Sunderland last summer, and the manager remains sure of Mignolet's talent.
“Confidence-wise, it is important for me to lift all the players. And for Simon, it is something I will reinforce with him,” Rodgers told the club's official website.
“He is still an outstanding goalkeeper but when you make those mistakes they get highlighted more as a keeper. He will be disappointed with the second one because it is a basic cross into the box and he should deal with it.
“But he has come here because he’s an outstanding goalkeeper and, I repeat, you don’t lose your talent. Players will succeed if they have confidence and part of my job is to help deliver that confidence to them.”
Team-mate Toure tipped Mignolet to respond from his recent rocky spell positively, telling the Liverpool Echo: “Simon will get through it as he is really strong mentally. I told him that the life of defenders and goalkeepers is like this.
“All keepers have sticky patches, but he is a strong guy and he knows he has a big part to play in the season. It’s not only Simon, everyone needs to react. The back four could have done better with everything.
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“We know we have a strong defence as before we were keeping clean sheets. We will work on that in training and make sure we are better in the future.”