Man City’s troubled stopper too big to warm Liverpool bench

The Sun believes Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart would take a pay cut to join Liverpool, after the 29-year-old’s Etihad career was effectively brought to an end by new boss Pep Guardiola, with potential implications for his England place.

Alas, the current bun doesn’t actually suggest the Reds are looking to secure Hart’s services, even admitting that boss Jurgen Klopp has shown no interest in the Shrewsbury native.

Indeed, it would be odd if the Merseysiders were looking at bringing in a man reportedly on £150,000 per week wages, who would demand first-team football despite being made surplus to the requirements of a direct competitor.

Besides, it appears Klopp addressed medium-to-long-term goalkeeping concerns when landing fellow German Loris Karius, a 22-year-old who earned rave reviews for Bundesliga outfit Mainz over the past three seasons.

The newboy’s broken wrist has meant sticking with Simon Mignolet for another month at least, which appears to have cost Liverpool after the Belgian let in as many Premier League goals during the first two gameweeks as any other top-flight keeper.

Hart can hardly be seen as the answer having been shunted to the sidelines at City due to his perceived poor distribution, with a 50.1 per cent pass-completion rate registered in the Premier League over the past two seasons.

Karius’ 55.3 per cent equivalent in the Bundesliga over the same time hardly shines in comparison, but the former Germany youth international clocked up those numbers while passing to markedly less expensive players than those at City, with Mainz finishing 11th in 2014/15 and sixth last term.

Incoming Citizens stopper Claudio Bravo never managed better than a 57.1 percent pass-completion rate during his four La Liga seasons in goal for Real Sociedad, yet averaged over 82 per cent over two full campaigns at Barcelona.

Bearing that in mind, an unlikely move to Liverpool would surely see Hart destined for benchwarming at best when the man Klopp appears to have picked for number-one duties is fit.

Without even European football to keep his hand in, the forlorn Englander needs to look elsewhere for a first-team spot.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.