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Simon Mignolet is determined to grasp the opportunity to remain as Liverpool’s No 1 this season.

With summer signing Loris Karius sidelined for around two months with a broken hand, Mignolet will start the campaign for the Reds.

The Belgium international knows he needs to back up bullish words with performances on the field if he’s going to hold down a place in Jurgen Klopp’s side.

“I wish Loris all the best,” Mignolet told the ECHO.

“I hope everything goes well and I’m sure he will come back strongly from this. You don’t want to be losing players from the squad and we’ve had a number of injuries now.

“I just need to stay calm. I need to look at myself and my own performances in the games and in training. I have to keep my head down and keep working hard.

“I don’t want to speak too much about it because I want to do my talking on the pitch.

“It’s down to me to put in performances and play the best I can.

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“It might be that Loris is injured now, but that doesn’t mean I’ll take my foot off the gas. It doesn’t change anything.”

Mignolet made his first outing of pre-season in the comfortable 2-0 win over AC Milan in Santa Clara.

It was a quiet night for the shot-shopper, who relished the sight of watching Divock Origi’s match-winning contribution.

Mignolet believes this will be a big season for his fellow countryman, who bagged 10 goals in his first campaign with the Reds.

“Divock showed what he can do,” Mignolet said.

“I know when he cuts in like that what can happen. There’s always a good chance he will find the net.

“He came on and made a big difference and that’s what you want to see from him. Let’s hope he keeps progressing and evolving as a player.

“If he can stay injury free then I’d expect him to kick on a level this season. Without the injuries last season he would have scored more than 10.

“If he can stay fit and keeps working as hard as he is in the moment then he will score more for us.

“It was nice for me to be back out there. We didn’t give many chances away and we were well organised.

“We working on things during the week and put them into practice.”