Alisson has done what even Salah never has at Reds knows why

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is achieving something that has eluded Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, two of his fellow living legends at Anfield.

11/12/2023, 04:12 PM +00:00

The most remarkable thing about Alisson's save against Crystal Palace on Saturday is that it's not even the best the Liverpool goalkeeper has made this season. His stop to deny Miguel Almirón in the 2-1 victory over Newcastle back in August, which won the Premier League's save of the month and may take the annual prize too, ranks just ahead.

Still, this stop to deny Jefferson Lerma at the end of a sweeping counterattack was similar. In both instances, the power in the shot meant that Alisson could only push it onto the woodwork despite getting a firm palm to the ball. Here, he needed Trent Alexander-Arnold to rush back and clear to prevent it squirming over the line.

If the shot had beaten him, nobody would really have been asking questions of the goalkeeper. Lerma had seemed nailed on to score both before and after he made contact. That's probably the best way you can sum up the difficulty of the save. In the dying seconds of stoppage time as Palace hunted an equalizer, the Brazilian also showcased immense speed to get down and push a Joachim Andersen header away. Replays suggested that the Dane was offside, but Alisson didn't know at the time. While he couldn't keep a clean sheet here it was nonetheless yet another game that underlines his status as the best in the world in his position.

He's not the only Liverpool player in those conversations. Alexander-Arnold has long jostled with the likes of Kyle Walker and Reece James for that mantle, while Virgil van Dijk, the once unanimous pick for number-one center-back, is now seen to be competing with William Saliba and Rúben Dias.

Salah’s Record

Mohamed Salah may have scored his 150th Premier League goal, and 200th Liverpool goal, in Saturday's victory, but he hasn't been able to separate himself from other world-class forwards like Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane in recent years, at least beyond Anfield. There may be individual goalkeepers who edge Alisson in particular departments but there's nobody out there who is so complete in their array of top-level attributes. And that is what ultimately sets the 31-year-old apart.