Liverpool star Alisson Becker has helped Jurgen Klopp transform the side and in particular the defence. But why?
In order to answer this question, Rush the Kop reached out to Oldham Athletic‘s goalkeeping coach Steve Hale. Hale holds a UEFA A coaching badge, and was more than happy to help us answer our questions.
The text in bold is what we asked Hale, while his answers are below.
What specific things do you see in Alisson’s game that make him so good?
Alisson shows a great deal of confidence in his play and his own abilities. He has a great range of passing and is confident in tight situations and shows a calmness to play out when under pressure.
This shows that he is mentally strong and even if he makes mistake he doesn’t let it phase him or affect his decision making later in the game. Linked to this, he makes positive decisions when leaving his goal line.
Alisson has had a pretty quick rise to the top of the game. Do you think that’s a result of excellent coaching or just pure natural talent?
I think his rise to the top will have been a mixture of natural talent, combined with coaching and game experiences. I don’t think you can put it down to one factor alone. Firstly he will have shown some potential at an early age, natural ability. Then over time he will have worked with a number of different goalkeeping coaches who will have possibly worked in different ways which will have broadened his thought process on different aspects of goalkeeping.
On top of that he will have learned a lot by actually playing in games, each game gaining more and more experience. This will have enhanced a lot of his decision making skills.
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Could you see aspects of his game that need to be worked on and how would you go about coaching that?
I think when a goalkeeper like Alisson or any top goalkeeper for that matter gets to the level he has, it’s more about tiny details rather than major work to improve more.
I think coming to England one area which he may find different or might take time to adjust on is dealing with crosses.
The hustle and bustle of English Premiership football and the pace and physical challenges he will face will test him mentally, physically and technically in particular much like it did initially for David De Gea.
His improvement I feel will partly come from getting more and more games and partly perhaps in the analysis room watching games back and looking at situations he has faced along with situations he may face from upcoming opponents.
In a goalkeeper group alone it’s not easy to recreate the situations he will face on a match day.
If you could take one or two things from Alisson’s game and tell the keepers you coach to do it, what would it be?
I would say the ability to be so positive and mentally strong along with his range of distribution skills.