Gary Lineker jokes that £67m Liverpool player will be fuming with Micah Richards after Manchester City clash

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Gary Lineker thinks that Liverpool’s Alisson Becker won’t be happy with Micah Richards after Saturday’s draw with Manchester City.

Alisson had a rare off-day against City, almost gifting Pep Guardiola’s side a goal on a couple of occasions. And looking back on his performance on The Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker suggested that a pre-match interview with former City man Richards is what threw Alisson off playing his regular game.

“I saw you before the game and you were talking to the Liverpool goalkeeper, Alisson,” began the pundit. “Considering he’s not even a Manchester City player you were a bit crawly and all that ‘oh you’re so good!’ You asked him a reasonable question though, you said ‘you’re the best in the league at one-on-ones, what’s your secret, you’re so great at it?’

“Then obviously a few minutes into the game Haaland goes through, knocks it straight past him and it goes through him. So, whatever you did to curse him it worked Micah! That’s why he’s the ambassador at Man City!”

“I bet he can’t wait for his next interview with Micah Richards!” Alan Shearer chimed in. “He’s never speaking to him again!” joked Lineker.

“We call that reverse psychology that one!” replied Richards, with his now trademark laugh.

Alisson’s bad day at the office

Although Alisson didn’t have his greatest game at the weekend, Lineker needs a little correction here.

It wasn’t ‘a few minutes into the game’ that Haaland beat the Reds goalkeeper, far from it. In fact, it took the big Norwegian just shy of half-an-hour to get the better of Ali.

It’s also worth pointing out that the goal was hardly a one-on-one situation between Haaland and the Brazilian.

Alisson has rightly become known as the very best ‘keeper in the world when it comes to such situations. Although Haaland is arguably the planet’s top marksman, you feel that even he would struggle to get the better of Liverpool’s No.1 then.

Instead, the City striker didn’t take that chance. Having got between Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk, Haaland hit the ball early, before Alisson had chance to get himself set.

Even then, the Reds goalie got a hand to it, but he always looked second favourite.

Liverpool won’t be concerned about that. Alisson has more than enough credit in the bank since his £67m arrival in 2018 to ride through a poor game.

What will be far more worrisome are reports suggesting that the 31-year-old could be out of action until the New Year. Having picked up a slight hamstring knock at the Etihad, there’s some panic over his immediate condition. Perhaps we’ll just blame Micah for that one, too!