Another day at the office for the Liverpool no. 1
Though Mohamed Salah was given the MOTM award after setting up Liverpool’s opening goal in their narrow 2-1 victory against West Ham United on Sunday, the goalkeeper had his say in the scoreline as well. Alisson Becker made a number of eye-catching saves to keep the Hammers out, and even if a number of the big moments were subsequently flagged offside, the Brazilian nonetheless was in for a shout for MOTM himself from the impressive double save in the first half to deny Carlos Soler.
Speaking to Liverpoolfc.com post-match, the Liverpool keeper minimized his highlights reel:
It’s part of my job…I’m pleased to come back and to deliver to the team a good performance, helping the team with the three points. Unfortunately no clean sheet this afternoon but all that matters is the three points and I’m so glad of it.
I am always frustrated when I cannot be involved in the games and this season it happened a few times. But this is part of our profession as well – part of being a footballer is dealing with these upsets, these situations with injuries, and I’m so happy to be back to help the team and to enjoy playing is what I love to do.
Though West Ham came into the match in 17th in the Premier League, Alisson was clear that the strength of the English league makes this position irrelevant when it comes to goal threat:
We started the game really well. I think the biggest part of the game we played well, even defending, even if they had chances. But in the Premier League if you play not well for 20 minutes you can get punished, maybe even in one minute you can get punished.
The place West Ham are in the table doesn’t say anything about their quality, their team. They are so strong, so good, so many good players and they create chaos in the midfield, up front, and in the last line it is difficult to defend. But I’m so glad that we could get the result and it brings us closer to our main goal this season.
It’s really disappointing when you concede a goal like that. We know our responsibility on the goal — sometimes you have to clap hands to the opponent because they deserve it for the way they play but it was really poor for us for 15, 20 minutes defensive-wise, giving too much space.
Then we have to highlight the energy, the intensity we put in at the end of the match after conceding the goal to get the winner at the last minutes and keep defending, keep the result.
Football is about that as well — not always you are going to have a clear performance, a clear game. You have to deal with that and this makes us strong as well.
Liverpool certainly do need to stop conceding goals from unforced errors, and the anger at this weekend’s goal certainly suggests a miscommunication at the root of it.
The Reds need two more wins to secure their 20th league title, and should they achieve it Alisson will have played a massive role.