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Adrian is not at Anfield to make up the numbers – he will push Alisson

Gareth Roberts |

August 15, 2019

IT started with the gloves.

When it became clear Liverpool were all in on Alisson Becker, to the tune of a then world-record £67million fee for a goalkeeper, a picture of him looking menacing in huge, rubbery, slightly weird, black gloves was quickly circulated.

The Brazilian No.1 was captured as part-horror film bad man, part goalkeeper, but that mattered none. He looked like someone you wouldn’t mess with, someone to seize control. A bloke that will tell you it’s no trainers on a Saturday night and leaves you walking away without argument as staring eyes bore into your soul.

You’re not trying the socks over the trainers trick on this fella.

After too much time watching Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius, it was just what was needed at Liverpool FC. A reset button was pressed on a collective mindset around the man between the sticks.

The position of goalkeeper – particularly at a club so well-lit by the spotlight of attention as Liverpool – is utterly unforgiving. Cock up in midfield and it’s soon forgotten. Do it in goal and it’s a GIF before you can blink. That pressure ultimately told on both Mignolet and Karius. You know all about what we’ll kindly term their ‘greatest hits’. Let’s leave it at that.

Alisson, though, looked different from the very start. And not because he looked like he’d take no stick on a Saturday night in town. His adeptness with his hands, wrapped in those sinister gloves, was soon on display. But it was his ability with feet that really set tongues wagging among the red hordes.

Rewind back a year, and here was a man with a huge price tag hanging around his neck in his early days with a new club. The comfort zone was gone. New surroundings, new team-mate, new boss – and fingers poised to type about a problem position not solved should a mistake be made.

The tabloids love a ‘transfer flop’ don’t they? Given all that a sensible brain may reach the conclusion that a period of playing safe may be the done thing. Be solid, play the percentages, take no risks, and get established. Alisson had other ideas. In a 1-0 victory over Brighton at Anfield 12 months back, he was faced by Anthony Knockaert charging him down on the edge of his area.

Had it been a Choose Your Own Adventure book, options may have included ‘blam it into the stands’, or ‘attempt a pass out to the left flank’, But surely even the most adventurous of scribes would not have gone for ‘nonchalantly chip the forward, bring it down and lay it off to Virgil Van Dijk like you’ve got all the time in the world’.

Yet that’s exactly what he did. And we loved him for it.

The mistake the world was waiting for did come a week later, against Leicester City, when Alisson attempted a Cruyff turn in his box but failed to fool Kelechi Iheanacho. It led to a goal but, crucially, it didn’t lead to a collapse – despite the best efforts of some to make it into more than it was. 

Alisson kept on being Alisson, with highlights across his first season including a crucial Champions League star-jump save against Napoli at Anfield and of course his comforting display in the final itself.

His 21 clean sheets in 38 games gave him the Premier League Golden Glove award at the end of the season and, for the first time in a long time, a new campaign started without the need for the customary goalkeeper conversation.

The Simon Mignolet out, Adrian in moves were largely greeted with a collective shrug – why would it lead to anything more when the Belgian didn’t play a single minute of Premier League football last season? Liverpool was in safe hands. All that changed 39 minutes into the Premier League opener against Norwich City when Alisson slipped taking a goal kick, sustaining a calf injury that could sideline him for up to eight weeks.

Adrian, from readying himself for the challenge of a deal with Real Valladolid only a week or two before, was now running towards a packed Kop singing his name as he took his place in goal for the European Champions. That the misfortune of Alisson was so readily accepted was more evidence of the goalkeeping decks being cleared. Had that been Mignolet sprinting towards the home end the chorus from The Kop would have been very different.

And so to Wednesday night. The 32-year-old tasked with standing in for one of, if not the, world’s best goalkeeper found himself in Istanbul, facing up to Chelsea in the Super Cup final.

A string of solid saves, a pleasing dash from his line to block at feet, the most questionable of spot-kicks conceded and then the crucial save in the shootout. Adrian’s first start for Liverpool was certainly an adventurous one. And the ending he wrote was the stuff of boyhood dreams. Rocky-esque almost, as Jurgen Klopp highlighted.

Little over a week ago the former Betis stopper was a free agent. Now he has the first medal of his professional career to hang up at home and can point to playing a part in Liverpool lifting a record 46th piece of silverware.

It’s never quite going to be ‘Alisson who?’ and a solid second choice keeper will never be able to elevate himself to the levels of the elite player he has replaced on a consistent basis. But what a story. What a moment. And what a refreshing taste of romance to wash away modern football’s bad breath. When Alisson fell to the turf at Anfield last Friday, it prompted the extreme corners of the internet to – once again – write off Liverpool in terms of challenging for silverware this season.

Well, let’s end with a good old Rocky quote for those people. I’m sure Jurgen would approve.

“It ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” 

Yo Adrian, we did it.

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