Alisson blunder land but Liverpool hold out
AGAINST Brighton last weekend, Alisson announced himself as the coolest new goalkeeper on the block with a chip of such insouciance over the onrushing Anthony Knockaert that it would not have been out of place in a Cristiano Ronaldo highlights reel.
Emboldened, the Liverpool No 1 tried something similar at the King Power Stadium yesterday. It didn’t work out so well.
Until this clash with Leicester, everything had been going beautifully for Liverpool’s new Brazilian recruit.
Bought as a salve for the Champions League final trauma visited on his team-mates and their supporters by Loris Karius, Alisson had already started to feel like £65million well spent, adding more assurance and more style to a back line already bolstered by Virgil van Dijk.
But after Jurgen Klopp’s side had cruised into a 2-0 lead against Claude Puel’s team and started to close in on their best start to a season since 1990-91, the keeper overreached himself.
Midway through the second half, he fielded a back pass from Van Dijk and attempted to deceive Kelechi Iheanacho with a maladroit Johan Cruyff turn.
The pitch was dry, the Leicester fans were baying and Iheanacho was alive to Alisson’s ruse. As the former Roma star fiddled about on the byline, Iheanacho dispossessed him and crossed the ball to where James Maddison and Rachid Ghezzal were waiting. Maddison missed it. Ghezzal did not. He swept the ball into the empty net. Alisson pounded the post with his fist.
For the remaining 27 minutes Liverpool lived on their nerves. They had been at their dazzling best for the first 20 but then their fluency disappeared.
They took the lead after only ten minutes through Sadio Mane and went further ahead, against the run of play, just before half-time with a Roberto Firmino header, but now they were forced to cling on.
In the end, their lead survived and their perfect record at the top of the table remains intact.
In that context, Alisson is very fortunate that his mistake is a footnote in a still unblemished team record of four wins out of four, but at a time when keepers like Ederson and Jordan Pickford have become stars for their ability to play the ball out of defence, this was a neat reminder of what can happen when things go wrong.
‘I take risks,’ Alisson said recently. ‘Fans with heart problems have to be careful.’
Liverpool fans saddled with the dual uncertainties of Karius and Simon Mignolet in past seasons have had more than enough of those problems but they will take solace, as Klopp did, in Liverpool’s response to Alisson’s mistake. They did not crumble.
Afterwards, the Anfield boss scoffed at the idea that managers must accept that goalkeepers with the footballing abilities of Alisson will create opportunities for a team, but also bring an element of risk when playing the ball out of defence. ‘We all have to learn to use him in the right way,’ said Klopp, ‘which means pass the ball in the right moment and then offer him some passing options. Play the pass at the right time, not on a dry pitch when the ball is like bop, bop. That was a mistake.
‘No goalkeeper in the world should dribble in that situation. That’s how it is. But he did it. For me, much more interesting is the reaction and that was good.
‘The crowd wanted to make him more nervous but he didn’t look nervous and that helps.’
Against a Leicester team deprived of Jamie Vardy through suspension, Liverpool began as if they had shaken off their early season lack of fluency.
They should have scored in the fourth minute. Mo Salah clipped in a smartly struck ball to Firmino on the edge of the area. The Brazilian controlled it beautifully and his touch was so good it took
him clean through on Kasper Schmeichel.
Firmino struck his shot too close to the goalkeeper, but it still took his good reaction save to palm the ball out. When it fell to Salah, though, it seemed a formality he would score, but he sidefooted the ball wide of the right-hand post.
It was a short reprieve for the hosts. Six minutes later, Andy Robertson broke down the left and walked through an attempted foul by Ricardo Pereira.
The Scotland defender fed Mane and when Harry Maguire botched an attempted interception, the Senegalese toe-poked the ball home to put Liverpool ahead.
Leicester took a while to catch their breath and it was midway through the half before they mustered their first real attack.
Ghezzal slid a neat ball through to Demarai Gray and when he tried to hit the ball across Alisson, the keeper blocked the effort with his hand.
When all of Leicester’s possession came to nought, Liverpool hit them with a sucker punch on the stroke of half-time. A corner from James Milner, a dart from Firmino and a firm header from the Brazilian eluded Schmeichel’s dive and nestled in the net.
The hosts, who were beginning to force Liverpool’s defenders into mistakes with their pressing, strove to force their way back into the game but could not find the guile or the edge to do it.
They got a glimpse of a chance when Van Dijk gave the ball away in his own half but Maddison picked the wrong option as he broke forward and the chance slipped away. Minutes later, though, Maddison wriggled away from Van Dijk and Robertson only to see his goalbound shot brilliantly blocked by Joe Gomez. Maddison then breezed went past Van Dijk before being tripped by the Holland defender on the edge of the box. The midfielder took the free-kick but crashed his shot into the wall. Leicester still could not break through. Then Alisson gave them a helping hand. The crowd thought they smelled fear in the Liverpool ranks, but the league leaders hung on.
LEICESTER (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel; Pereira, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell; Mendy, Ndidi; Ghezzal, Maddison (Amartey 83), Albrighton (Iheanacho 61); Gray (Okazaki 76). Subs (not used): Evans, Ward, Iborra, Fuchs. Booked: Ghezzal, Mendy, Ndidi. LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Matip 89), Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Wijnaldum, Henderson (Keita 71), Milner; Salah (Shaqiri 71), Firmino, Mane. Subs (not used): Sturridge, Moreno, Lallana, Mignolet. Booked: Van Dijk, Milner. Referee: Paul Tierney. Attendance: 32,149.