Adrian in action for Liverpool
Adrian in action for Liverpool

Liverpool transfer news: Teenage Brazilian goalkeeper joins Premier League champions but not yet ready to challenge Adrian as back-up


Liverpool have signed another goalkeeper, but Adrian can rest easy as it's not a direct challenger for him with 17-year-old Brazilian Marcelo Pitaluga still a long way from the finished article.

Adrian's poor performance against Aston Villa led to many believing that the Reds would bring in another keeper with Alisson set to miss up to six weeks with injury.

Jurgen Klopp has signed a keeper, but it's youngster Pitaluga, who was in Brazil's FIFA U17 World Cup squad and has been on the bench for Fluminense.

Having worked with Alisson’s brother, Muriel, at the Brazilian side, Liverpool certainly have the inside track on their new young recruit, who is training with the first team at Melwood but will also play for the academy.

“I saw him for the first time in the World Cup squad. You’re checking all the goalies and looking at the ages,” head of goalkeeping John Achterberg told Liverpoolfc.com.

“You see that he was in the World Cup squad one year younger than the rest of the squad, then you think that’s worth a look because normally you have two goalkeepers of the same age, but if you have someone who is a year younger you think he may have some good attributes.

“He was at Fluminense; we got some games to look at, all the other goalie coaches also look at it – Jack [Robinson] and the Academy coaches Mark [Morris] and Taff [Neil Edwards]. And, of course, I speak to the gaffer and the rest of the coaching department here.

“In Fluminense we had Allan [on loan], so I spoke to Julian [Ward, loan pathways and football partnerships manager] if he saw a little bit of him in training there. He saw him too and was also positive.

“I asked Ali to speak to his brother to see how it goes and how he is doing. Ali spoke to his brother and Ali went training there. We saw a little bit from the training and the games he was playing for the reserves in Brazil.

“He was already 16 playing in the reserve team there so you also think, they trust him to play already in the reserves at 16.”

Achterberg added: “Now he is here, we have to improve [him]. He is still young, there is no pressure because there is still a long road and we don’t want to create any pressure for him because there is still work to do.

“First of all, you need to let him settle down, find his way. He needs to learn the speed, the kind of game in England is different than in Brazil, it’s a lot faster and there’s more aggression in it. All that stuff you have to calculate as well to work on a little bit.”