Alisson Becker exclusive interview: Brazil international opens up on Liverpool’s struggles and Claudio Taffarel’s influence | Football News

Within the first-floor reception space of Liverpool’s Kirkby coaching centre, Alisson Becker is posing for images with the membership’s participant of the month award for October.

It says one thing concerning the aspect’s latest performances that their goalkeeper is the person gathering the prize. Alisson has been busy. Far busier than he or Liverpool would have appreciated.

Jurgen Klopp’s aspect head into Sunday’s conflict with Tottenham in ninth place having misplaced twice as many Premier League video games as in the entire of final season. They’re eight factors behind fourth-placed Newcastle. Fifteen factors behind leaders Arsenal.

If not for Alisson, they might be even worse off.

Whereas others have toiled, Alisson has been, to make use of Klopp’s time period, distinctive. And that is even by his requirements. The underlying knowledge exhibits he has conceded practically seven targets fewer than he ought to have, based mostly on the standard and amount of photographs he has confronted.

“If you have a look at that, it is clearly one thing optimistic,” Alisson tells Sky Sports activities. “I do not imagine you must depend on statistics to know if you’re performing effectively or not, however they’re a great signal and a great indication of the best way you must comply with.

“I do not give myself an excessive amount of reward due to that, due to having good numbers, however clearly it is one thing that makes me glad.” Alisson pauses, smiling. “The numbers by no means lie.”

Alisson has proved a transformative signing since his £67m arrival from Roma in 2018, lifting “each potential trophy”, in his phrases, in addition to a number of particular person accolades which incorporates two Golden Gloves and FIFA’s greatest males’s goalkeeper award in 2019.

And but, even within the context of Liverpool’s chaotic season, by which so a lot of their normally dependable performers are struggling to search out type, Alisson appears to be discovering new ranges.

Does he really feel on the prime of his recreation?

“I feel so, sure, however I am not doing something alone,” he says.

“Even when the group just isn’t acting at the easiest, the truth that I am doing it is because I’ve assist. I can not do issues alone on the pitch. The gamers are attempting, they’re combating along with me.

“I am glad about my performances, however on the identical time I am hoping that we as a group will return to the identical monitor that we have been on final season as a result of what we did final season was superb.

“We now have that as a goal and for myself as effectively, to be pretty much as good as I used to be within the final season and, if potential, get even higher.”

‘Stick collectively, maintain combating’

The reality, although, is that Alisson can solely achieve this a lot.

Liverpool’s collective malaise has seen them concede the primary aim in eight out of 12 Premier League matches this season, with Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Leeds simply the newest instance. The qualities that turned them into such a power below Klopp – depth, resilience, ruthlessness – have solely appeared sporadically.

It has left onlookers puzzled. How can a aspect beat Manchester Metropolis one week then lose to Nottingham Forest and Leeds, two relegation candidates, the following? Alisson is extra inquisitive about fixing the issues than what lies behind them.

“As gamers, we do not have an excessive amount of time and we attempt to not spend an excessive amount of of it fascinated with these items,” he says. “I feel individuals from outdoors will all the time discuss extra, however we’d like motion.

“We have to practice, we have to put together. We can not keep solely what we did unsuitable within the video games. We now have to organize for the subsequent recreation and the subsequent opponent.

“We all know issues change fast in soccer, so we simply have to stay collectively, maintain combating and maintain attempting to do good performances.”

And, in fact, discover a strategy to do it persistently moderately than in patches. “That’s one thing all of us have in frequent, one thing all of us agree on, that we have now to search out our consistency once more,” he says.

All people expects to see us rating one, two or three targets within the first 20 minutes. We’re doing the alternative

“All people is used to seeing it in our group. We, the gamers, and the individuals as effectively. A constant Liverpool, conceding only some targets, holding clear sheets, scoring, successful video games.

“All people expects to see us rating one, two or three targets within the first 20 minutes, however now we’re doing the alternative.

“In fact, while you concede first and also you win, it is a signal of a powerful mentality. That’s essential as effectively.

“However we all know that, to search out consistency, we have now to cease conceding first, as a result of, all the time, it is a knock to the arrogance of the group.

“That’s one factor we agree on, however we do not focus an excessive amount of on the issue, as a result of then we’re not centered on the suitable factor. We deal with the options. We converse between us, with the supervisor, and we attempt to placed on the pitch every thing we talk about and put together.”

Failure to try this towards Spurs on Sunday will see the stress ramp up additional however Alisson shrugs when requested about the potential of latest scrutiny and criticism persevering with to mount.

“It’s a part of soccer,” he says, smiling once more. “It isn’t one thing that’s straightforward to cope with. However we have now all performed soccer for some time now and I personally perceive that that is a part of it.

“You will have stress from the surface world, from the supporters, from the media. Solely enjoying for an enormous membership are you going to have this sort of stress.

“I see it as regular, however we have now to struggle again, and our response must be on the pitch with performances. What we won’t do is let the criticism have an effect on us and convey us down extra.”

They cannot let it dent their perception both. Alisson insists he and his team-mates have little doubt they’ll get again to the place they have been. They’re helped, he says, by having been by all this earlier than.

“We all the time have perception,” he says. “We now have the understanding that issues will not be going so effectively for us to date. We now have to be lifelike. We now have to be humble as effectively, to just accept it, to struggle extra, and to recognise what goes unsuitable and to alter it.

“However that’s a part of our group, being humble, combating. We all know that generally we can’t be one of the best on the pitch, however we would be the ones who struggle essentially the most. That is what we have now finished to date and it labored out in different seasons for us.

“We will not overlook, as effectively, the season we had earlier than the final one, once we needed to struggle rather a lot. We struggled within the competitors due to accidents, due to outdoors circumstances, however we got here again.

“So, we have now sufficient expertise to cope with these sorts of issues, we simply must do it.”

Alisson, in fact, performed an even bigger position than most in Liverpool’s restoration that season, his astonishing headed aim of their 2-1 win over West Brom on the Hawthorns serving to Klopp’s aspect clinch a Champions League spot.

“Folks nonetheless tag me on Twitter or Instagram on the video of that aim,” he says with a chuckle. “It was one thing unbelievable, among the finest emotions I’ve had in my life, scoring that aim, and for all it represented for the group at that second.”

It was an instance, too, of how Alisson’s affect at Liverpool stretches far past his shot-stopping alone.

The Brazilian has made extra profitable passes than every other goalkeeper since his arrival within the Premier League. There have even been three assists, all for Mohamed Salah, the newest of which got here together with his beautiful lengthy move deep into Manchester Metropolis territory at Anfield three weeks in the past.

“It is one thing I work on, however not each day, as a result of kicking lengthy balls like that calls for numerous you bodily,” he says. “It is extra about me understanding Mo and Mo understanding me.

“So, I do know the place he runs, I do know he is quick, I do know his qualities, and I’ve the qualities as effectively which might be wanted to place the ball behind the opponent’s line of defense.

“I wish to practice it extra, to be sincere, however we do not have sufficient time. We now have too many video games, one after the opposite.”

‘Taffarel greater than a coach’

The time that Alisson does get on the coaching area is spent with Claudio Taffarel, his idol, shut pal and, as of final November, full-time Liverpool goalkeeping coach, shut at hand.

Alisson grew up admiring Taffarel, a World Cup-winning Brazil legend who even began his profession at Internacional, the identical Porto Alegre membership as him. He now counts the 56-year-old, the person he calls ‘Tafa’, as his mentor in addition to one among his greatest footballing influences.

“Tafa is somebody that has a big effect on my life and my profession earlier than he was even my goalie coach, due to every thing that he was as a goalkeeper and for every thing he did for the Brazilian nationwide group,” says Alisson.

“That was all the time sufficient to admire him, however then, within the nationwide group, we began to work collectively, and I might see that the qualities he had as a goalkeeper, he has as a goalie coach as effectively.

“I all the time felt good engaged on him within the nationwide group, even when it was just for quick intervals of time, and I all the time imaged how good it will be to work with him each day.”

Me and Tafa, we are actually mates as effectively. I like him in each approach potential. I can see him as a pal, as a goalie coach, as a legend, and as a household man

That chance arose final yr, when the membership expressed a willingness to behave on his suggestion of hiring Taffarel to work with current goalkeeping coaches John Achterberg and Jack Robinson.

“After I signed my new contract with the membership final yr, I had gained the goalkeeper of the yr already, and each trophy potential, however I nonetheless needed to enhance,” explains Alisson, who will head to the World Cup in Qatar later this month as Brazil’s No 1.

“That is nonetheless the case now. I am solely 30, so I’ve a great distance in entrance of me, and bringing Tafa, along with John and Jack, has given us a very good combine.

“We now have John’s expertise in English soccer, the identical as Jack. They helped me massively to settle in right here and to grasp Premier League soccer, to grasp the membership, to grasp the nation. They helped me to enhance as effectively.

“Now, having them along with Tafa, is one thing superb. Then, me and Tafa, we are actually mates as effectively. I like him in each approach potential. I can see him as a pal, as a goalie coach, as a legend, and as a household man.”

Taffarel’s arrival has remodeled Alisson’s approach of working.

Like Alisson, Taffarel spent a lot of his enjoying profession in Europe, however his teaching strategies are extra typical of his native nation, with extra of a spotlight, Alisson explains, on approach.

“The principle motive I needed to have him right here was due to the methodology of goalkeeper teaching in Brazil. It is one thing that I grew up with, however it modified once I got here to Europe.

“After I went to Italy, it modified from Brazil, and once I got here to England, it modified from Italy. There are some similarities, however I all the time felt that I needed to have that form of coaching again.

“Brazilian goalkeeper approach, I really feel, is likely one of the greatest on the earth and we’re good for a motive; as a result of we have now actually good goalie coaches who work in a approach that makes us enhance each day, and never solely within the technical side, however the bodily as effectively.

“It’s a actually intense form of work. I am not somebody who spends an excessive amount of time within the gymnasium. I love to do power and energy on the pitch with the ball. So, the best way he works helps me on that as effectively.”

Current proof exhibits past all doubt that it’s paying off.

This season has introduced challenges few anticipated for Liverpool. Klopp has points to handle. However his goalkeeper just isn’t one among them. Alisson, already sensible, simply retains getting higher.

Watch Tottenham vs Liverpool reside on Sky Sports activities Premier League from 3.30pm on Sunday; kick-off 4.30pm