Jurgen Klopp has just hinted at Liverpool deal he wants FSG to deliver
This week’s Blood Red column on Alisson Becker, who brought up his 250th Liverpool appearance against Newcastle on Monday
After the euphoria of Monday night’s pulsating 4-2 victory over Newcastle had started to subside, there was a Liverpool milestone that had quietly passed without much recognition.
Alisson Becker might have preferred to have signed off from his 250th appearance in goal for the Reds with his 109th clean sheet but he was still able to toast to an energising triumph that, judging by the post-match scenes at Anfield, has given many within the fanbase a firm belief that a sustained push for the Premier League title can emerge in the coming months.
If Liverpool are to make it a second title in four years in May, much of that success will be down to the brilliant Brazilian between the sticks. Widely regarded as the best in the world by those who work day to day around the AXA Training Centre, Alisson has once more been a beacon of consistency for a team who currently possess the best defensive record in the Premier League.
His presence between the posts is what will embolden Klopp that a genuine tilt at the major honours can be forthcoming and already the debate about exactly where he stands in the pantheon of greats at Anfield is a healthy one. There will be few who will grumble at the suggestion that he is the finest glovesman of the Premier League era at the very least at Liverpool.
The summer of 2021 was an important one for the Reds in terms of tying down the core of their squad to new deals at the time as the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson all penned contract extensions alongside Alisson, whose own terms were stretched until 2027.
That additional year on the contract means Liverpool will be in no rush to open further negotiations but it was interesting to hear the Brazil international speak openly last month about his plans to play for many more years yet at the top of the game.
“I feel myself in a good way, in good shape. I’m working for that – to improve each year as much as I can,” he said. “I started to play (first team) football at a young age for a goalkeeper, 21 or 22 years old, so I’ve already played ten years in the posts.. That’s a lot of time, but I’m still young for a goalkeeper. If you see goalkeepers now they are playing until they are 38, 39 and sometimes going over that.”
With Alisson not turning 32 until early October, it will be heartening for fans to hear him talking about the possibility of playing for another six or seven years and there will surely also be an acceptance from owners Fenway Sports Group that age should be no barrier to new terms for a goalkeeper as good as the current No.1.
That same sentiment will also apply to Klopp, who conceded before Christmas that he could not contemplate having another first-choice at his disposal having enjoyed Alisson’s excellence since the summer of 2018.
“I look at him now and I think: ‘I don’t want another goalkeeper,'” Klopp told Ben Foster for Amazon Prime. “That is the goalie you want to have. He is calm as you like, really smart, a really good person and he wants to play every game. When we analysed him and we wanted to bring him in and we watched his game, it was ridiculous how calm he is.”
It will be interesting to see where appearance No.251 comes for Alisson at Liverpool as they get for a busy few days of cup action starting with Arsenal in the FA Cup third round before a visit from Fulham in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg.
Two years ago, Klopp kept his promise to Caoimhin Kelleher throughout the successful League Cup campaign, which enabled the Irishman to forge his own piece of history by slamming home the penalty that won the shootout against Chelsea at Wembley. This time around, however, might the temptation to start Alisson for such an important game be too huge for the manager to ignore?
Having brought up that personal record this week, though, the challenge to climb further up the appearance ladder is now in front of Alisson for the coming years. Only six shot-stoppers have turned out more times than the former Roma man at Anfield and if he does have designs on playing on closer to his 40s, Klopp has already admitted it’s one he would like to see happen on Merseyside.
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Jurgen Klopp insists Liverpool will have to get “creative” in the absence of Mohamed Salah as the manager hinted at a system change this month.
Salah scored twice in Monday night’s 4-2 win over Newcastle to take his tally for the season to 18 but the Egypt international is now bound for the Africa Cup of Nations, which gets underway on January 13 and runs through to February 11.
Two years ago, Salah captained Egypt to a penalty shootout defeat in the final against Sadio Mane’s Senegal and a repeat run this year will see the Liverpool star miss seven games and potentially an FA Cup third-round replay, should it be needed, against Arsenal.
Klopp admits he is unable to replace Salah with a direct like-for-like in his Liverpool squad given the contribution of a player who has scored over 200 goals for the club and suggested he will introduce new ways of getting by without the top scorer.
“How can we do that? The special thing about Mo is he can play all the time,” Klopp said. “In the games I rotated him Mo was probably in the physical state to start the game but I think it makes sense from time to time not going through all of the brick walls.
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“Now, we have to see. We have different options and we can change the system. When Mo is playing it makes sense that we play a specific way so that he can be in his favourite position, he deserves that and he helps us there the most.
“But when he’s not there we have to be creative and maybe we will be. I don’t know what surprises you after all these years but maybe it will! Not for the sake of it, but maybe. Let’s see.”
Asked if the Africa Cup of Nations should be played during the summer months in the same way the World Cup and European Championship are, Klopp added: “I understand all these needs and stuff like this but there must be someone above it all [who makes this decision].
“Thankfully now it was really nice to see Fab (Fabinho) and Bobby (Roberto Firmino) back in the stadium [on Monday] and you think: ‘You need a winter break in Saudi Arabia?’ But then you remember it’s for the AFCON so they stopped the league. It makes sense.
“Could we stop the league because of the AFCON? No, probably not, where would we fit the games in? Could we play it in the summer? Don’t ask me, I have not been to Africa too often that I can tell where they can play. I probably spent a lot of my time in South Africa or somewhere there. That could be OK.
“For the Asian people, which is a pretty big continent, they can all say the same [about the Asia Cup] and have all these needs. So, yes, I am not the right person to have any kind of opinion about it because we deal with how the schedule is set and how it goes. It would be better if they all played in the same moment and not every year, that would be helpful as well.
“But we have spoken about that plenty of times. At some point we just have to push a break but this time we knew about it. So I wish the boys well and hope they come back healthy.”
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