John Gibbons: All eyes on Adrian – but we’ve got a great record in Istanbul

Liverpool almost got off to a perfect start on Friday night. I say almost because we aren’t top of the league anymore because Manchester City are ridiculous.

We also lost our goalkeeper to a horrendous tackle by a blade of grass. It looks like he’ll be out for a month at least.

It did mean a nice moment for new substitute goalkeeper Adrian, who got a warm welcome as he ran on to play for Liverpool for the first time. You can’t choose the circumstances of your debut as a player, but if you could I reckon 3-0 up at Anfield the first game back after winning the Champions League would be right up there.

Just think last week he didn’t have a job.

Now he’ll start for Liverpool in the European Super Cup in Istanbul.

First start, first chance of a medal. It’s great for him, but is it good for Liverpool?

Obviously, it would be much better if Alisson was fit as he’s one of the best in the world, but where does this fella rank? 50? 100? Worse?

We weren’t expecting to find out so quickly. His debut was supposed to be in the League Cup.

Liverpool let Simon Mignolet go in search of first-team football and now both parties might be regretting it. In truth, few fans were sad to see Simon Mignolet go. He’d burned too many heads out over the years.

So now the consensus seems to be “well this new fella can’t be any worse”. But I’m not sure. I was told that about Loris Karius and look what happened to him. In fact, what did happen to him? I’m not even sure where he is.

I suspect Jurgen Klopp would be more confident if he had the big Belgian to take to Istanbul.

But, apart from that at least The Reds seem to be at full strength. It was lovely to see a lively cameo from Sadio Mane on Friday and the front three back in tandem again.

He was the last of our squad to return but looks raring to go. He seems to have lost none of his sharpness. Probably because he hasn’t had much of a rest.

I want to win on Wednesday night. As trophies go it isn’t the biggest, It’s probably somewhere between the Community Shield and the World Club Championship. But, we are in it so we might as well win it. A

Besides, it’s always nice beating Chelsea and Frank Lampard isn’t it?

Maybe we’ll win on penalties, Adrian will be the hero and he’ll be so good Allison won’t be able to get back into the team. Maybe.

Or maybe The Reds will be so dominant they can play me in goal and still win.

That would be nice too, either way, let’s lift a trophy at the end of it. It’s been over two months since the last one. I miss it! We’ll be fine anyway. We’ve got a decent record in Istanbul…