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Simon Mignolet believes his ongoing battle with Loris Karius to be Liverpool No 1 will improve them both - as he revealed they were hitting the town together for a Christmas celebration.

Twenty-four hours after Mignolet was recalled at the expense of Karius for the Reds’ 3-0 win over Middlesbrough, the pair were set to attend the ‘Liverpool Goalkeepers’ Union’ annual dinner, along with the likes of coach John Achterberg and third-choice shot-stopper Alex Manninger.

The Belgium international’s delight at returning to Premier League duty at the Riverside was tempered by sympathy for the plight of Karius, who was devastated to be dropped after being heavily criticised for costly errors against Bournemouth and West Ham.

Mignolet has endured similarly chastening experiences during his Anfield career and has emerged stronger for it. He believes Karius will respond in similar fashion.

“The goalkeeper position is not an easy one. You can only speak about it if you are a goalkeeper yourself,” Mignolet said.

“We are team-mates so of course I have sympathy. I am 28 now and I have been through it as well. At a club like Liverpool, one mistake gets really big out of nothing. I know what it is like and it’s not nice.

“The most important thing is Liverpool Football Club. No individual is more important than the club. Obviously for Loris it won’t be nice but he is more than capable and professional enough to deal with that and learn from it. He will get stronger.

“It’s a funny story because we have got our goalies union Christmas dinner on Thursday so we will go out for food. All the goalies at Melwood will go out. Boggie (Adam Bogdan) with his injury will probably miss it but there will probably be around 10 of us. All the young boys will come along as well. We will keep it a secret where we go.

“The goalies union is something special. We only know our situation and what it is like.

“I do not want to speak too much about it as we are team-mates, we have to get through it and we all have to push each other. Competition will get us far. I want to keep quiet and look out for my own performances.”

Mignolet, who had been relegated to bench duty for the previous 10 league matches, was informed by Klopp after training at Melwood on Tuesday that he would start against Boro.

It was reward for the attitude and application he had shown since losing his place in the side back in September.

“I always try to be ready in this kind of period,” he said.

“I am somebody who thinks about training for yourself and you have to make sure you keep fit and healthy and ready.

“In football things can change very quickly with an injury or an illness. Therefore you have to look after yourself, stay professional, keep your head down, work hard and off the pitch stay focused, which is not always easy, especially as a keeper.

“As a striker you can come on to help the team at certain moments but here you have to wait for your chance to come and try to be ready.

“I only knew I was playing on Tuesday and then I had to focus on my own job to make sure I was ready to play. You have to be mentally strong as a keeper.”

The former Sunderland No 1 delivered a rock-solid display - pulling off one fine save to deny Viktor Fischer.

But Mignolet insists he was more satisfied to be part of such a dominant team display as Liverpool warmed up for the Merseyside derby by clinching victory courtesy of Adam Lallana’s double and a goal from Divock Origi.

“Saves sometimes get noticed but there are more things we look out for that people don’t see,” he said.

“A lot of times at 2-0 up last season and this season we went 2-1 and the game changed. It’s up to us at the back to manage the game in a way that we don’t concede. Middlesbrough put some pressure on us and you need to have experience to go through that.

“We know as Liverpool Football Club that when the results are not there we will always have a bit of criticism. As a club it was important to get back to winning ways against a very good side. In the first half they played really good football and it wasn’t easy.

“We didn’t create many chances but then on the counter-attack with the quality we have we scored at the right time and then it was about managing the game. In the second half it looked a bit easier than it was.

“The mood in the dressing room was very nice after a couple of rough weeks when we did not get the points we wanted. Everybody can be pleased with the goals we are scoring and the talent we have up front.

“The clean sheet was not important, it was about the three points. We have a derby game coming up and it feels totally different after what happened last week.”