Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker has been given a five out of ten for his World Cup display vs Croatia last night.
It was a night to forget for Brazil as they crashed out to the unfancied Europeans on penalties. Alisson didn’t manage to save a single one of Croatia’s four kicks. With question marks maybe over him for the equalising goal, too, Globo gave the Liverpool man only half marks.
It is claimed that the 30-year-old only had ‘regular participation’ in the game by use of his feet. Globo also suggest that Alisson only ‘got close’ to one of the Croatian penalties.
Although there was hardly much Liverpool’s No.1 could have done better, the Brazilian public scored him even lower. Given a four out of ten by his watching countrymen, at least he didn’t get a zero, which five of his teammates did.
Harsh to point fingers Alisson’s way
Another World Cup, another quarter final defeat for Alisson and Brazil. As much as losing to Belgium four years ago stung, this one will feel even worse.
Having dominated for so long against Croatia, there’s really no excuse for the South Americans losing this one.
They can hardly blame Alisson, either. As per Fotmob, Brazil had twenty-one shots to Croatia’s nine. Of those nine for Luka Modric and co, only one was on target. That was scored by Bruno Petkovic.
You can perhaps point the finger at the goalie on the penalties, but really, why would you? The goalkeeper starts as second favourite one every spot-kick. Through a mixture of luck and skill you can sometimes alter those odds, but most of the time you’re going to be beaten.
The only disappointment perhaps comes in knowing that Alisson is certainly capable of better.
In pretty much every other metric, he’s surely a far better ‘keeper than Croatia’s Dominik Livakovic. But when it came to the crunch, Ali couldn’t become the hero, and the Dinamo Zagreb man could.
So, perhaps there will be questions from some quarters why a ‘keeper as good as Liverpool’s couldn’t do better. Maybe those are fair, but penalties are a lottery.
Ultimately, Brazil should have won the game comfortably in the 120 minutes. Their failure to do so will hurt Alisson as well as Fabinho, who didn’t get on the pitch. Hopefully they can put this behind them in time for the Premier League’s restart.
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