Exclusive: Former Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Friedel has offered his thoughts on whether reserve Reds stopper Giorgi Mamardashvili is ready to become Arne Slot’s number one option, in an exclusive interview with ReadLiverpoolFC.
Liverpool’s long-term vision for the post-Alisson Becker era is beginning to take shape, but former Reds goalkeeper Brad Friedel has warned that replacing the Brazilian will be a “hard act to follow.”
Since completing his high-profile move to Merseyside, Mamardashvili has found himself in the middle of one of the most talked-about goalkeeper hierarchies in world football.
Tasked with competing against a modern-day icon in Alisson, the 25-year-old is now living the daily reality of trying to succeed a player who has been the heart of Liverpool’s trophy-laden era.
It has been a very stop-start season for the Georgian, ever since he set foot onto English soil last summer, after he finally completed his £29m move from Valencia.
Indeed, he has had to make do with minimal minutes, as Alisson remains the Dutchman’s preferred number one option in between the sticks.
Giorgi Mamardashvili: Liverpool Minutes (2025/26):
| Competition | Appearances | Minutes played | Clean sheets |
| Premier League | 6 | 540 | 1 |
| Champions League | 5 | 396 | 1 |
| EFL Cup | 1 | 90 | 0 |
| FA Cup | 1 | 90 | 1 |
| Total | 13 | 1116 mins | 3 |
Mamardashvili has only started seven Premier League games all season long, recent one coming in Liverpool 4-0 thrashing against Manchester City in the Emirates FA Cup quarter final with the 25-year-old surely envisaging a better start to his Liverpool journey in his head when he first joined Slot’s ranks.
After all, he would join his new club with a reputation for being a rock-solid shot-stopper in La Liga, with 38 clean sheets collected across his last four seasons in the Spanish top-flight.
In stark contrast, at the time of writing, he has only kept one paltry Premier League clean sheet.
Averaging a heroic 7.5 saves per game for Georgia, too, at the 2024 Euros, Liverpool would have hoped that they’d hit the immediate jackpot, winning the Tbilisi-born star.
He does have some first-team openings, now, to impress Slot; however, with Alisson’s continued bad luck with injuries, propelling Mamardashvili back into the starting XI spotlight.
In time, he will hope he can wear the number one jersey with pride at Anfield, with Brad Friedel who accumulated a staggering 450 games in the Premier League now offering his thoughts on whether the £29m keeper can handle the pressure of being Slot’s main choice in between the sticks.
Friedel’s thoughts on Mamardashvili as a number one
Friedel can no doubt sympathise with Mamardashvili’s situation, as the American had to earn his stripes in the English game with the Reds, all the way back in 1997.
He would then line up for Blackburn Rovers, Aston Villa, and Tottenham Hotspur across a wide-reaching career in the Premier League, with the Georgian wanting to establish himself as a goalkeeping great, too.
Friedel, speaking with ReadLiverpoolfc.com via Gambling.com, where users discover top online casinos, believes the 25-year-old “must look to grab it with both hands” when handed first-team opportunities, to prove to Slot that he deserves to be in the number one conversation.
Q) Giorgi Mamardashvili is a massive talent, but is he truly ready to handle the pressure of being Liverpool’s first-choice keeper right now?
He said: “It’s tough as we said, you would be following an incredible goal keeper like Alisson. These goal keepers like Alissson don’t come around often and he as was a key part to Liverpool’s success over the years that he will be a very hard act to follow. But Mamardashvili is his own man, so has to stay true to himself and create his Liverpool career.
There is no reason he can’ handle the pressure, but it’s a case of you don’t know until he is given the chance. All I can say is from what I’ve seen, I do suspect Liverpool scouts will be looking for a new long term number one but while Mamardashvili is at Liverpool, he may get the chance to show what he can do and must look to grab it with both hands.”
Friedel does state that he believes Liverpool will look to try and get a new long-term keeper in through the door, to make up for Alisson’s long absences from the side through injury, but he doesn’t rule out the potential of the Georgian stopper carving out his own memorable Anfield career, in time.
While the bruising 4-0 thrashing served as a harsh welcome to the relentless standards expected at Anfield, Giorgi Mamardashvili knows that in football, the narrative can shift in a heartbeat.
That difficult afternoon may have been a collective failure, but for a goalkeeper looking to displace a titan like Alisson Becker, the response is often more important than the initial setback.
With a daunting fixture run looming with the clash against Paris Saint-Germain next on the horizon, the Georgian international finds himself at a critical crossroads in his early Liverpool career.
As Friedel rightly pointed out, following a figure as transformative as Alisson is a “hard act to follow,” but the Champions League nights under the lights are exactly where legacies are forged.
A standout, match-winning performance against the French champions wouldn’t just erase the memory of a four-goal deficit it would serve as the first real brick in the foundation of his claim to the throne.
