I will not change, Alisson vows after blunder
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson said he would learn from his mistake in his team’s victory over Leicester City that led to him being dispossessed for Rachid Ghezzal’s goal, but added that he would not change his approach of playing with the ball at his feet.
The £67 million goalkeeper was robbed on 62 minutes by Kelechi Iheanacho, who crossed for Ghezzal to score and set up a tense last half-hour with Liverpool emerging as 2-1 winners. Their first-half goals, from Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, were enough to take them back to the top of the Premier League.
Speaking to ESPN Brasil, Alisson said that he would not be “stupid” and make the same mistake twice, but the Brazilian insisted that it was part of his job to distribute the ball with his feet. “I am angry that I made a mistake that put the team in a difficult situation. When one person makes a mistake it affects everyone, and everyone fought back together. We have to improve still, but the result is what matters at the moment,” he said.
“It was bad judgment. I made a mistake reading the play. I didn’t get a very good pass. We talked about that in the dressing room and I spoke to Virgil [van Dijk, who played the ball]. It wasn’t a good pass but I could have just kicked it long.
“I wanted to keep the possession. Now everyone is going to analyse that. I’m not going to be stupid and make the same mistake. It is part of my game [playing with the ball at his feet], but I am not going to be so arrogant to stand here and say, ‘I’m going to keep doing it.’ We have to learn from our mistakes.
“If it is necessary, the dribble has to be the last resort. Unfortunately it caused the goal. I actually think it was a foul but I don’t want to blame it on that. In the Premier League it’s not the kind of contact that results in the game. It’s part of the game. I just have to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp added: “Football is a game where a lot of mistakes happen. That was a big one because we conceded a goal. It needs to happen [in order] that it will not happen again.”
It was a mistake that ultimately had no bearing on the outcome, the £67million Alisson dawdling by the goal-line and coughing up possession to the striker snapping at his heels, but given Liverpool’s recent history with fallible goalkeepers, it certainly cast a shadow over a good day for Jurgen Klopp’s team.
The Brazilian would later say that he did not think much of the pass from Virgil van Dijk that put him in that position, and Klopp himself wondered if the pitch was not a little on the dry side. Substitute Kelechi Iheanacho came in to rough up the goalkeeper as he looked to turn out of trouble – a foul, Alisson would later reflect – and the ball was crossed back for Rachid Ghezzal to score the first goal Liverpool have conceded in four league games.
They have won four out of four, and this victory took Klopp’s side back to the top of the Premier League for the time being, their best start to a season since 1990-1991 when Kenny Dalglish was in charge in his first spell and the First Division championship resided at Anfield. Title contenders in 2018? Without a doubt, which is why they are being scrutinised for every possible weakness, especially those that they have paid handsomely to eradicate.
In all other departments Alisson looked commanding, especially when the tide turned against Liverpool after a blistering start. They scored through Sadio Mane on eight minutes. Yet by the time that Roberto Firmino had added a second at the end of the first half, Claude Puel’s team were back in the game. Alisson later said that he would not make the same mistake again, and Klopp said that if there was a game to make one like that, this was it.
If Leicester had not stood off the visitors at the start, perhaps it could have been a different story, but this remains a formidable Liverpool side. Had Puel told his players to target Liverpool’s goalkeeper when he deliberated with the ball at his feet? “We have a saying in Normandy, ‘Maybe, yes, maybe, no’,” said Leicester’s French manager, making you wonder how the Normans ever reached a final consensus about invading their English neighbours.
Puel’s team played with a lot more certainty, and there were bright performances from the likes of James Maddison and Nampalys Mendy which filled their manager with hope.
They have won two and lost two – to Manchester United and now Liverpool – and once again Puel’s substitutions were booed by the home crowd, although there was promise in the performance. In the absence of the suspended Jamie Vardy, there was a start up front for Demarai Gray, and the pressure was on Liverpool to the end. The away side had a fine performance from Joe Gomez, a crucial saving tackle in the second half on Maddison one of the standouts.
The Alisson mistake gave Leicester hope, having fought their way back into a match in which they were bypassed in the early stages. Mohamed Salah missed a chance on three minutes with just Kasper Schmeichel to beat and, later substituted, the striker was not his usual self. Andy Robertson’s ball inside from the left gave Mane the space to beat Harry Maguire and stroke a shot past Schmeichel.
Having been overrun in the early stages, Leicester got back into it, taking confidence from a mistake by Georginio Wijnaldum midway through the first half from which they worked an opening. Mendy and Wilfried Ndidi are a good central midfield pairing, and the pace of full-backs Ben Chilwell and Roberto Pereira restricted Liverpool’s attack. It was all the more reason for them to regret the James Milner corner that Firmino headed in relatively unchallenged at the end of the first half. The routine was well-worked, but with the likes of Maguire in defence, it should never have been conceded.
was Milner’s 80th Premier League assist of his career, making him joint seventh in the all-time table with David Beckham.
It was a more positive Leicester side in the second half. Puel was booed for substituting Maddison as he had been when he took off Marc Albrighton earlier. In between came the goal conceded by Liverpool, a bad backpass from Van Dijk that Alisson lingered on far too long. In came Iheanacho to whip the ball away and his cross was finished by Ghezzal, the £6 million signing from Monaco to replace Riyad Mahrez. It precipitated a scramble at the end, with Jordan Henderson replaced by Naby Keita and Xherdan Shaqiri coming on for Salah as Klopp tried to reignite his team. The Liverpool manager described the goal as a mistake that had to be made at some point if, for nothing else, to teach his players that they could not just assume that their goalkeeper was an easy outlet every time they found themselves under the kind of pressure Leicester applied.
“We all have to learn to use him [Alisson] in the right way, which means pass the ball in the right moment and immediately make another offer for him, some passing options – whatever,” Klopp said. “Football is a game where mistakes happen. That was a big one because we conceded a goal. The reaction was brilliant. I am completely fine. It needs to happen that it will not happen again. That was the day today.”
Klopp was also asked what he made of Jose Mourinho’s suggestion that managers such as him – who had won nothing outside their own country – were subject to less criticism. Intrigued, Klopp’s reaction was that the Manchester United manager was “right, absolutely”. “He is probably the most successful manager in the Premier League at the moment. I have no problem with that,” he said. “I don’t watch Jose Mourinho press conferences – should I? I will start doing that.”