Cast your mind back to the 51st minute on May 26th, 2018 in Kyiv.
It’s 0-0 in a tight and difficult game against the back-to-back winners of the European Cup and our Player of the Season, Mo Salah, is injured.
What do you hope for in these circumstances?
Personally, I hope our players keep things simple, put the work in and don’t make silly mistakes. Up steps Loris Karius who throws one at the feet of the clinical French forward Karim Benzema to blow those hopes out of the water. But we recover right? Sadio Mane and Gareth Bale exchange goals leaving things to play for at 2-1 with 10 minutes to go.
However, the chance of a fight back was cast aside the moment Karius punches a long ranged Bale shot into his own net. While this example was the extreme of bad goalkeeping performances, Liverpool goalkeepers in Premier League past have always made mistakes and they’ve always shown weakness when we’ve needed strength.
Liverpool sign Alisson Becker from Roma the following summer for a record (at the time) £66.8 million in an attempt to rectify this issue. And boy did they rectify this issue!
Alisson, from the first moment that he set foot on the pitch, changed the entire mentality and confidence around the team. He showed remarkable distribution with long passes directly from glove to Salah or Mane’s foot in the attacking third as well as long throws to the full backs. He displayed unparalleled confidence and composure when passing short from the back ensuring that the ball is regularly recycled and the pressure is maintained.
He has a fantastic ability to make all of the challenging aspects of goalkeeping simple with him catching well struck shots or dangerous looking crosses with ease. While other Premier League goalkeepers would be flailing across their goal making fingertip saves; Alisson would make them look routine and demoralise the opposition into thinking that they have to hit the corners of the goal to even have a chance of getting the ball past him (which would lead to them missing more chances as the strikers are under more pressure).
We can’t pretend that he hasn’t had howlers like against Leicester in 2018/19 and Man City 2020/21. When he made that mistake against Leicester early in his career, he could’ve easily got nervous and hesitant in his role and go the same route of the likes of Karius or Mignolet. But the mentality that he possesses to immediately forget these incidents (and for the fanbase to forget too) and play his normal game demonstrates his quality.
In his first season at the club, he became a goalkeeper that we could rely on. He made massive saves against the likes of Eden Hazard, Andre Gomes and Ben Mee to win us vital Premier League points. He also had 3 pivotal and iconic Champions League performances. His first was Napoli where he had his Steven Gerrard “OH YOU BEAUTY” moment and saved Milik’s close range shot late on to send us to the knockout stages. He then had Barcelona where, in a game that required everyone to be perfect, he was perfect. The pick of the saves for me was Jordi Alba just before half time but he also kept Suarez, Messi and Coutinho shots out to provide the platform for that great night. Then the Champions League final in Madrid. Alisson made 8 saves to keep a clean sheet in a tight and cagey contest. A task that his predecessor Karius couldn’t cope with only 12 months prior.
He followed the Champions League win with more dominant goalkeeping performances in a season that saw Liverpool win the Premier League in a convincing and record-breaking style. He was front and centre of the most iconic moment of the season, however, with him assisting Salah for his goal against Manchester United and running the length of the field to celebrate with the delirious Kop.
If anything, 19/20 was a season that showed Alisson’s importance through unavailability. After being an ever-present in 18/19, he got a calf injury on the opening day against Norwich to send the season into potential flux. Fortunately, Adrian was able to deputise admirably in the Premier League conceding 8 goals in 9 games in the league. The loss of Alisson was worst against Atletico where Adrian’s mistakes (plus poor finishing) cost us a Champions League run and showed what an elite goalkeeper can do for the prospects of major silverware.
In 20/21, he made costly mistakes (the most notable being against Man City at Anfield) and suffered personal heartbreak losing his father in tragic and sudden circumstances in late February 2021. The football club were suffering on and off the field with a wide array of damaging injuries, lack of confidence and personal tragedies that left us in a major struggle for a top 4 spot amidst the challenging competition of Leicester, Chelsea and West Ham (even being as low as 8th with 10 games to go).
However, through hard work and courage, we entered The Hawthorns on Gameweek 36 with 4th place in our control. Going into the 95th minute at 1-1, in a game that encapsulated what our 20/21 season was with a mix of defensive errors and poor finishing and in a series of events that can be described by our own Paul Machin:
”Here comes the big Brazilian from the back. The goalie is up and this is it, one corner to save Liverpool’s season. Inswinger from Trent… ALISSON BECKER! ALISSON BECKER! ALISSON BECKER!!!!”
Alisson Becker, the first Liverpool goalkeeper to score a goal. Scores a winner in the 95th minute to put us on the brink of the top 4 after a season of disaster and pain. We see him in tears on the pitch, we see him have one of the most poignant interviews from a Liverpool player in my lifetime where he paid tribute to his late father and said “I’m too emotional, this last month for everything that has happened with me and my family, but football is my life, I played since I can remember with my father. I hope he was here to see it, I’m sure he is celebrating with God at his side.”
Alisson Becker is comfortably the best Liverpool goalkeeper in the Premier League era and has rightfully been voted into that position by the fans and he will only improve on that legacy in the coming years.
