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The sight of any goalkeeper picking up an injury is enough to fill a fan of any side with dread. For Liverpool supporters and Alisson Becker though, it’s even worse.
The Brazilian looks set for yet another spell on the sidelines after being forced off during the Reds’ Champions League defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday. The full extent of his injury hasn’t yet been disclosed, but Arne Slot didn’t sound very confident after the game.
The Liverpool boss has already ruled Alisson out of Saturday’s trip to Chelsea, and however many games he misses after that, it will be a massive blow to the Reds.
You only need to look at the last two games to see Alisson’s importance to Liverpool. Even in back-to-back defeats, the 32-year-old underlined his status as - we would argue - the best goalkeeper in the world. We dread to think how bad the scoreline might have been at Crystal Palace without him making a string of superb saves in the first half.
And even while picking up his injury on Tuesday, he did so bailing out his teammates after Ibrahima Konate’s poor pass gave Victor Osimhen the chance to bear down on goal.
Unfortunately, Liverpool fans have become all too familiar with Alisson picking up injuries over the years. Given just how good he is, the frequency with which he has been forced out of the side has been all the more frustrating.
Since the beginning of the 2019/20 season, Alisson has missed a total of 79 games for club and country (as per Transfermarkt), with his absences in recent years becoming noticeably longer.
His first major layoff came at the start of that title-winning campaign in 2019, when a calf injury saw him ruled out for 15 games, before a hip injury later in the season saw him miss a further three games.
The 2020/21 season saw Alisson miss a total of 10 games through shoulder and hip injuries as well as illness. The following campaign actually saw him miss just the one game after contracting Covid, while he would be an ever-present in the 2022/23 season.
The 2023/24 campaign though saw his injury problems really take hold. A muscle problem led to him missing three games toward the end of November and heading into December, with illness seeing him miss another game in February. His return didn’t last long thereafter as he picked up a hamstring injury that would lead him to miss 15 games for club and country.
Jurgen Klopp was of course replaced by Slot that summer, but the injury problems persisted for Alisson.
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He missed a total of 31 games for Liverpool and Brazil last season, with thigh and hamstring issues plaguing him during the first half of the campaign, while a concussion sustained on international duty in March would keep him out for another three games.
Looking at Alisson’s injury record then, you can understand why Slot and Liverpool fans aren’t exactly filled with hope after the keeper’s latest setback.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise then that the Reds spent around $35 million to sign Giorgi Mamardashvili last year. That might seem like a lot to fork out on a backup, but Liverpool was not just looking to the future when it identified the Georgian international as Caoimhin Kelleher’s replacement.
Even the most optimistic of supporters couldn’t have expected Alisson to see the entirety of the season through without any injury problems, and so we’ll get our first real glimpse of just what Liverpool spent its money on, as well as a look into the future.
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