Alisson Becker made a terrible error against Leicester City but that may actually help Liverpool in up coming games this season.
Goalkeeping errors. We are experts in them. Flapping hands and brainfarts are the stock in trade of Liverpool goalkeepers in recent seasons. Spending £66 million on a goalkeeper was meant to eradicate those worries but thanks to Alisson fluffing against Leicester City they are back only four games into the season.
No-one is comparing Alisson to Loris Karius or Simon Mignolet yet. That pair made mistakes from general goalkeeping incompetency. Becker just got too confident on the ball. Brazil, and all that. The John Achterberg truthers are not yet pinning this error on the much maligned coach yet either.
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Many of the commentators and pundits covering yesterday’s game pointed to the risky chip against Brighton & Hove Albion as evidence of Leicester planning to pressure the keeper. Other clubs will have seen the error and be instructing every forward to do exactly the same.
Does that worry you? Not me. I like it and think it will play into Jurgen Klopp’s plans.
It is important to point out that the error leading to the goal was not all on Alisson. The pass from Virgil van Dijk was poor and gave the forward time to press. Joe Gomez – who was otherwise outstanding – did not move to give the keeper and easy pass. You can even go back further to Henderson getting pressured by dawdling in midfield.
Of course the bulk of the blame goes on Alisson and he should have just lumped it rather than trying a Cruyff turn. His post-match comments suggest that he will learn from that lesson. But all it takes is something a little better from the goalie, van Dijk and Gomez and that situation is either neutralized or never happens.
I sincerely hope opposition teams hassle Alisson. He is too good on the ball and the vast majority of the time will take advantage of the space left by the pressing attacker. Giving this Liverpool side a man advantage anywhere on the pitch at any time is suicide. Let them bring it!