Joel Matip has claimed that Alisson Becker saved Liverpool from losing against Brighton on Saturday.
In quotes from BBC Sport after Liverpool drew 3-3 against the Seagulls on Saturday, Matip gave an honest assessment.
“Absolutely not happy, not a good performance,” said the centre-back. “Brighton played really well and made our life quite hard, [but] it wasn’t our game and it started from the beginning. We have to improve. It was better but we are still not happy with our performance, especially at home. We expect more from ourselves.”
Despite the gloomy nature of the draw, there were still some positive performances for Liverpool, though. Matip rightly picked out Alisson for ‘saving their backs.’ Without the Reds ‘keeper, they wouldn’t have got anything from today’s game.
“It’s great, even in not a good game for us, he [Roberto Firmino] scores, that’s brilliant. He [Alisson] was there to save our backs again and hopefully he does not have as many saves to make in the future. I don’t care who is coming, we just have to step up and do better,” said the 31-year-old.
Liverpool becoming over-reliant on Alisson
Simply put, Liverpool weren’t good enough on Saturday afternoon. Again.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to watch this team week after week. Not only do they create so blatantly little going forward, but they are almost unbelievably open time, after time, after time.
That would almost be acceptable if you could see the effort being put in by the players. But despite things consistently going poorly, there is a distinct lack of it.
Even after Liverpool went ahead thanks to an Adam Webster own goal, you felt the Brighton equaliser coming. And they deserved it.
Slicing through the home side’s defence became the easiest thing in the world for them. Leandro Trossard is a fine player and today isn’t the first time he’s caused Liverpool problems. But a near-enough unopposed hat-trick at Anfield? It’s indescribably poor.
It almost feels as though Liverpool have become over-reliant on having a goalkeeper as good as Alisson. They seem to drop their effort levels safe in the knowledge that the 29-year-old will bail them out.
In this game alone, Alisson made three pretty sensational saves. But he can’t, and couldn’t, do it every time. His teammates desperately need to help him out or this season could get ugly very quickly for Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s side now find themselves 11 points behind Arsenal with just seven games played. With the Gunners to come at the Emirates next week and Manchester City the week after, Liverpool’s season could be over before it’s begun.
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