Jack Hallows is confident that Alisson Becker’s price tag will not be a talking point by the end of the coming season.
While Jürgen Klopp has publicly backed both Danny Ward and Loris Karius ahead of the coming season, the current goalkeeping situation at the club has truly become untenable and it is now clear: Liverpool need a new goalkeeper.
Loris Karius’ mental fragility is only going to get worse the more time he spends in front of the British footballing media, Simon Mignolet is as good as out the door and Danny Ward is still very much an unknown quantity despite being 25-years old.
The equation is simple.
If Liverpool want to not only challenge for major honours this season but win them, they need a better goalkeeper who is capable of performing on the biggest stage.
Look, despite his mistakes, Loris Karius is not a terrible goalkeeper.
He made some superb saves towards the back end of Liverpool’s campaign last season and in all honesty, when comparing shot stopping, I haven’t seen huge amounts to suggest that Alisson would represent an upgrade on David de Gea or Jan Oblak proportions.
However, there are enough worrying trends in the German’s game – not least the mistakes in the Champions League final – to suggest he just isn’t the man for the job.
This is where Alisson comes in.
Is he overpriced? Yes.
Does that matter if he helps to further improve Liverpool’s defensive record? No.
Look at the signing of Virgil van Dijk for example.
When the Dutchman joined Liverpool back in the winter transfer window for a world record fee, nobody was concentrating on what he would bring to the club.
All the talk was around his price tag and whether Southampton had played a blinder by making Liverpool wait six months and pay a truly eye-watering fee.
Months later and the talk has gone from the price tag to the fact that Klopp’s decision to wait and get his man rather than panic buy in the summer was an intelligent move, allowing him to add a key piece of the puzzle to his Liverpool project.
‘VVD’ is seen as one of the key players in the club making a Champions League final, finishing the season with European football for the second time in a row and helping Liverpool continue steadily on their upwards trajectory.
Why is this relevant? Alisson Becker could do the exact same thing for this club.
Bring in an expensive goalkeeper, especially one commanding such a price tag as Alisson and you’re inevitably going to get a lot of talk over whether he’ll live up to the bill and truly improve the Reds.
Where Karius had the potential to be a great fit for Liverpool was primarily in his ability to confidently play as a ‘quarter back’ type figure behind the defence, coming out to clear and sweep when long balls were played over the top.
He also had a preference for releasing the ball quickly, looking to spring counter attacks from the back with short balls out to the midfield or accurate punts to the forward line – something that is highly effective in Liverpool’s system.
Alisson can and will do all of that: only better.
He’s also got big game experience having played in the Champions League just as much as Karius, as well as representing Brazil in this year’s World Cup ahead of Manchester City’s Ederson who was, for some, the best keeper in the Premier League last season.
He’s also got friends and familiar faces at the club in the form of national teammates Fabinho and Roberto Firmino, along with ex-Roma-teammate Mohamed Salah which will help the stopper to settle on Merseyside.
Give him six months, a number of impressive saves under his belt and an evidently improved Liverpool defence and the conversation will shift from his price tag, to why the move was a necessity for Liverpool.
Reports have claimed in the last 24 hours that the completion of a deal for the Brazilian keeper is a matter of when, not if and for me, despite the price tag, this is a superb piece of business by the club.
A true upgrade in the goalkeeping department has been needed for a long, long time with errors costing the club consistently for really, as long as I can remember.
Now finally… finally, it seems we’re moving for someone who is going to represent just that.
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