It was Jarrod Bowen who went on goal. West Ham had defeated Liverpool's offside. But not their keeper. Alisson Becker has saved. Bowen became his last victim. Just another example of why the Brazilian is the best at those moments.
“He is on the side,” said Jamie Carragher on co-commentary for Sky Sports. “But he is standing against the best keeper in the world in terms of one-on-one situations.” He's right. But what exactly is it about Alisson that makes him better than other keepers?
Alisson had a good starting position against Bowen, but what was striking was how fast he was to move off the line and nip the shot. The England attacker did not do exactly Dally, but by the time he had brought the ball under control, Alisson was on him.
However, that is certainly a keepers who can be easily borrowed. If it were just as simple if you hurried out of the goal when an opponent thorn, Alisson would not be an obvious bucket. Others would simply copy his approach.
The secret is that Alisson made an assessment in a fraction of a second that Bowen had to look at the ball instead of the goalkeeper to ensure that he checked it. The calculation in his mind was immediately – that was the moment to close the corner with speed.
View a recent example of Anfield of another 2-1 victory – this time against Wolves – and consider how different Alisson treated when Marshall Munetsi was continued on goal. This time he was not finished at first. Instead, he chose to wait for it.
The reason? Because Munetsi stared straight at him. Alisson was stationary when the Wolves player looked in his direction and almost breathed to put himself together. It agreed that Munetsi looked at the ball that Alisson jumped forward to close him.
It was an exceptional save because the shot with some force was neatly beaten. But we are now at the stage where it was hardly a surprise that Munetsi was refused. “Not because of his quality, but because of the goalkeeper,” said Carragher.
It is not only necessary to make extraordinary intelligence to make the right decisions at these times, but also a rare calmness. Speaking with Daniel Pavan, the goalkeeper coach of Alisson for eight years in his native Brazil from his first days at Internacional, it was always a special gift.
“He is a very cold keeper,” Pavan explained. “I call him the IJsman because of his coolness and his calm personality. It is very difficult to point out a weak spot in Alisson. He is a complete goalkeeper with a control of all basic principles of his position.
“From the beginning he had a strong personality, always a leader in the dressing room. At Inter he was captain of the Senior Side when he was only 21. This personality, combined with his technique, has always been what separated him from the rest.”
A conversation with one of his former goalkeeper coaches emphasized approximately the same qualities. Rogerio Maia has worked at the highest level, but chooses Alisson as “a keeper with high levels of concentration and leadership skills” like so many big ones.
But it is this coolness that is so unusual, even under the elite. Every human instinct when an object is right to you, you tell you that you have to flutter or to push it away. Alisson is a photo of calmness. It is almost contraindic to stay stable.
It is a quality that even his colleagues in awe let it make clear, like a chat with Max Crocombe, a fellow international goalkeeper himself. “It is that kind of focus when you defend the goal because it is such a hectic moment, those pieces of calm.”
The now 31-year-old New Zealander added: “You just think he let someone hit a ball to him from two meters and he doesn't even respond with his hands, he just lets it hit on his chest and things like that. His calmness in the box is incredible.”
There are of course characteristics outside of his one-on-one power. Pavan speaks about his “exceptional technology” and a “natural talent above the norm”, while CroCombe notes that it is not only his speed that goes ahead and back, but also about the goal line.
“He is so fast around the goal. I don't know how often you see him and he makes it look so easy, it hardly gets an applause from the commentators or something.” His recent efforts in Paris were rightly praised, but were still a good example of that.
Road to Paris Saint-Germain in March, Alisson was the player of the game in the 1-0 victory of Liverpool, but it said that some of the rescues did not look so spectacular. Then you remember that the shot from 20 meters to the corner of the net was cracked.
This is where the expected goals data can help us because it calculates the chance that a ball will find the net in view of the location of a strike on the field and on the goal. It is not surprising that those figures tell us that Alisson occurs more goals than the rest.
Crocombe summarizes it. “He is just a complete keeper. Just really good at everything.” But it is still the one-on-one situations that illustrate his sparkle best. If the smart bet against the goalkeeper should be, the IJsman tilts the opportunities in his own way.
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