When Alisson arrived at Liverpool, it was thought that he’d definitely solve the Anfield club’s goalkeeping issues.

The Brazilian’s first three appearances seemed to re-enforce those views. He made some impressive saves, was good with the ball at his feet and he also managed to instil confidence in those playing in front of him.

Things were going swimmingly for Alisson at the King Power Stadium yesterday, as he was again impressing in in-between the sticks for The Reds against Leicester City.

Then on the sixty-third minute Alisson tried to turn inside his own penalty area and clumsily lost the ball to Kelechi Iheanacho who in turn set up Rachid Ghezzal to score for The Foxes.

Now Liverpool went on to secure a 2-1 away victory but the defence did look shaky, especially in the second half. In fairness to the goalie, he didn’t go and hide as he fronted up to his mistake and became refocused.

Alisson’s mistake will be pointed at and talked about. People will tell you that the twenty-five year old will need to learn quickly and not be so casual on the ball.

While that’s true to an extent, the other truth is that the whole Liverpool defence have to hold up their hands as they were just as culpable and they too need to learn from that mistake.

It all came about because of a slack back pass by Virgil van Dijk. Now I love Virgil but he has games were it just seems too easy for him and he then makes silly errors, you’d see it during his time at Celtic, and that happened again yesterday. His pass has to be closer to the keeper.

Then there’s how the defence reacted once the ball went back to their shot-stopper.

Neither Joe Gomez or Trent Alexander-Arnold made much of an effort to make themselves available to receive the ball. One of them should have given Alisson an angle for an easier pass out of defence. It was as if they though ‘Nah he’s alright, he’ll just dribble himself out of trouble’. Basically they didn’t do the basics and became complacent.

You then have to wonder if Liverpool’s defenders need to pass the ball back less. I get that Alisson is comfortable being the sweeper keeper but you shouldn’t overly rely on him.

Reds boss Jurgen Klopp clearly felt the same way:

“We all have to learn from that.”

“We could have cleared the situation twice before, then we give the ball back to him and, yes, he could have cleared it as well. He knows it was his mistake, of course. He’s man enough to get that.” 

The good news for Liverpool is that unlike past seasons they’ve managed to see out a tough game and get all three points. The keeper and the back four are better than last season’s backline.

I truly believe that they will learn from the mistake and if they do that then they should be challenging for all the major honours come the end of the season!

Posted on September 2nd, 2018 by scott
Filed under: Article