Interview with Alisson Becker ahead of Liverpool’s final game of 2024, at West Ham United on Sunday
With 275 games behind him as Liverpool’s most expensive goalkeeper, Alisson Becker has a unique vantage point of the progress being made at Anfield A staple of the Jurgen Klopp era, the Brazilian has become something of a legend in his own time on Merseyside, with his £65m arrival from Roma in 2018 helping accelerate the charge for the game’s major honours.
Within a year, following his ground-breaking move from Roma, Alisson was a Champions League winner and he topped that in 2020 when he helped the Reds to a first league title for 30 years.
As a result, few would quibble about his status as the finest glovesman of the Premier League era for Liverpool and by the time he eventually walks away from the club, the 31-year-old will be able to hold his own in a conversation with iconic custodians like Bruce Grobbelaar and the late Ray Clemence, such has been the No.1’s impact.
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Alisson is one of just a handful who remain from that period between 2019 and 2020 when Klopp’s Reds won the Champions League and Premier League and while a two-month absence with a hamstring injury was far from ideal this time out, the Brazil international has been ideally positioned to view how the Arne Slot era is shaping up.
For the man himself, it’s too early to be offering any firm comparisons between the two teams, but he admits something is beginning to stir as Liverpool prepare to enter 2025 as Premier League and Champions League leaders under new head coach Slot.
“Well, we have a few players that are playing here long enough, that experienced the highest peak of maybe the Jurgen Klopp era, if we can say that, and the lowest as well,” Alisson says. “So all these kinds of things you can use as a boost of energy, and we know we can see the quality that we have so that’s something that brings you energy and makes you put a lot of effort in to achieve good things, those players that they deserve.
“They work hard, they have quality, and we know that in the future we’re going to remember more about the good moments now that you had together in football. Winning is not everything, of course, but it’s a big part of football so I want to remember this team as a winning team.
“I don’t think it’s too similar [to the 2020 side], two different teams. A few players still play in the team but we have a little bit different style now, more ball possession, before it was really straightforward: a lot of transition, a lot of intensity. That team was really special, we achieved great things, it was the first Premier League title for this club in a long time.
“We achieved the Champions League together as well, the season before. I think there’s no comparison with both situations. Just what makes me happy is to see that this group of players, we have the quality to do something special and the most important thing is the commitment that is needed to win something is there, and the passion, the desire.
“We are hungry and we want to win every game in front of us and that we have in front of us and that’s all we are focused on at the moment. I think it’s different players, different managers, a lot of more different things than similarities.
“Of course you’re going to find a lot of things. I think you, from the press, you know more about these kinds of things and you look more for these kinds of things. I believe we don’t have to compare ourselves with the teams in the past, we have to create our own history. This season, this group has to create its own history.
“With the players who came in, they brought a lot of quality, and what we are doing, what we can do, we’re not going to erase the things we did in the past that were really special and will always be in the history of this club.”
Despite Alisson’s reluctance to compare and contrast with the group of players who lifted every top-level trophy under Klopp between those years of 2019 and 2022, Slot’s current crop visit West Ham United this weekend with a six-point lead at the summit of the Premier League and with a game in hand still to be played against Everton.
As a result, the Reds are being talked up as title favourites now for the second half of the campaign and, while the players are understandably still refusing to indulge themselves in such notions, performances like the 3-1 win over Leicester City on Boxing Day are only going to further such external debate.
Alisson adds: “It’s too soon to talk about the title, of course, but it’s our goal, it’s our target. At this point, we cannot just start to look at the points and see how it goes.
“We have to really focus on the next opponent that we have in front of us. That’s the mentality that we need and that is the mentality that we are having at the moment. We know how the Premier League can change so quickly in two games.
“Two games ago, maybe everybody was saying, looking to us at the table, Chelsea coming closer, all the teams coming closer, and now two games after we are in a better position. So everything changes so quickly here because of the quality of all the teams. So we have to be really focused on ourselves.
“As I said before, we have so many things to improve. During the season, you have to become a champion not only in one game or only for what we did at this halfway point. I think if at the beginning of the season we looked to this point now and are told the numbers, the amount of points that we have, the place we are, we would sign it off immediately. We are happy about our position, but still the best side of it is still that we can improve in some aspects.
“That means that we can become a better team when we play, be more solid, more consistent. Defensive-wise mainly, we are creating a lot, we are playing so well. So we have to look to the good sides as well and be happy for what we’ve been doing so far.
“I think when Arne joined the club, everybody thought it would be hard work for him to replace a manager like Jurgen. But he’s showing his qualities and he brings us a lot of good things.
“I think it’s not only one key, but many things that are helping us to achieve our goals. I want to highlight the commitment of this team, of the players, to do what the manager asks, to go every day and train hard and having the desire to improve as well, to be a better team and the desire of winning big things for this club. So that will always be an important point for a team that wants to be a winner.”
