Liverpool 1 Brighton 0 (Aug 25 2018)

[tlw content]

It might sound daft after just just three games, but when Alisson made that late save it felt like a real statement moment. I know it’s a cliché but we’d have drawn this game last season. We only had one solitary 1-0 win in the entire season because if we weren’t blowing teams away we were failing to hold onto leads and conceding goals from virtually any shot that was on target. 
 
Alisson was brought in to prevent that happening and to ensure 1-0 stayed 1-0 and didn't become 1-1. In the closing minutes of this game that’s exactly what he did. Most people seem to think it was a good save rather than a great one. I’m no goalkeeping expert but personally I thought it was top class. It felt like the whole thing seemed to unfold in slow motion as I watched it absolute horror, just waiting for the ball to end up in our net and for all the optimism to be completely sucked out of the stadium. 
 
The cross came in and initially I’m thinking ‘it’s fine, Virgil will head this away’. Then I realised he was struggling and it was going to drop over his head. At the same time I saw that Alisson had initially moved out towards the cross, but was now back peddling towards his line. The Brighton player arrived between the two centre backs and won the header. It just felt inevitable that it was going in, as we’ve all seen that movie before. 
 
Then Alisson sprung to his left and pushed the ball away. The save itself wasn’t that difficult but it was the judgement and footwork that put him in position to make the save that impressed me. As soon as he knew that he wasn’t getting the cross he stopped and got back into position. His footwork was so good that he wasn’t caught flat-floored, meaning he was on his toes and was able to react and make the save. As I say, I thought it was top class. 
 
There’s no way of knowing this of course, but I don't believe either Mignolet or Karius would have saved it because I don’t think their positional play, judgement and footwork would have got them back in position to do it. I could be completely wrong on that, but there’s a significant body of evidence to back that up when you look at all the silly draws we’ve had in these type of situations over recent years. 
 
We shouldn’t have been relying on Alisson to bail us out but it’s good to know that we have a keeper who can do that when the need arises. Hopefully it won’t arise too often. Personally I don't think it will as we're nowhere near our best and still have another few levels of improvement left in us. 
 
I wrote in the West Ham report that we didn’t really get out of second gear that day. We didn’t need to against the sorry Hammers and their bizarre tactic of everyone stopping and trying to play offside on the edge of the box. That game was easy. This was not. Brighton defended really well. They made it difficult for us and second gear wasn’t enough to blow them away. 

 

 

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[William_Ulsterman]

great report! 

 

we have a Big Sexy MK2.

[Iceman]

He's an enormous hunk of goalkeeping sex. When he wipes his gloves it's cos it's jizz. 

[rb14]

"All of that is subjective though. Does it mean anything? Maybe, maybe not. It might mean something to some City players and nothing to others. Maybe none of them care. It’s impossible to know."

When I first read those words Dave, I wept. Tears of happiness. Rarely has such knowledge and insight made its way from pen to paper so succinctly, capturing the essence of your - nay, all of our - thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[Elite]

Allison is the epitome of finesse. His spunk doesn't spurt, it glides out.

[Numero Veinticinco]

Allison is the epitome of finesse. His spunk doesn't spurt, it glides out.

If you listen carefully, it sounds like silk rippling through the air.