Alisson Becker is normally one of Liverpool’s best and most reliable players, but fell below his usual standards against Manchester City this weekend.
Liverpool face their toughest obstacle of the season when they head to the Etihad Stadium to face Manchester City on Saturday afternoon. Pep Guardiola’s side won the treble last season and are once again favorites to win the Premier League.
The Reds went into the match as underdogs but ended up drawing 1-1 after 90 minutes of play. Jurgen Klopp’s men showed resilience and determination, but one key player in particular had a rare poor performance in Manchester.
Alisson Becker was responsible for some of Liverpool’s problems during the game. Just 11 minutes into the game, he chipped the ball straight at Phil Foden as he tried to attack from the back, with the England international stopping him with a goalbound effort.
Just 16 minutes later, he made another possession mistake. After receiving the ball in the penalty area, he found Mohamed Salah on the other side of the pitch and attempted a quick counter-attack, but his shot missed the goal and landed at the foot of Nathan Ake.
The Dutch defender headed the ball forward before passing to Erling Haaland, who found the back of the net seconds later to give Manchester City the lead.
The Norwegian wasted no time controlling the ball and shooting, but it was largely Alisson’s save.It was a strange day for the South Americans. From the first whistle, he didn’t look like himself.
He made a poor decision on the ball and missed Haaland’s effort. To be fair to Alisson, he did make at least two important saves during the game, but they were well below his usual standards.
There’s a reason it’s so highly rated. Alisson has been very consistent and his impressive contributions over the years can be captured in his numbers on the pitch, while his shot-stopping ability is second to none in England.
Since his Premier League debut, he has had a total of 589 shots on goal, which equates to around 170.7 expected goals. But in reality he only conceded 150 goals (no own goals).
That means that, on average, they allowed about 20 more goals. Simply put, if the average goalkeeper had missed shots like Alisson in the Premier League for Liverpool, the Reds would have conceded around 20 more goals than they actually conceded.
None of his Premier League peers can compete with his impressive record. From Nick Pope to Aaron Ramsdale to Andre Onana to Jordan Pickford, Alisson is in a class of his own.
For context, Ederson, who appeared this weekend, conceded 145 of his 143.7 expected goals in the same period.
