Alisson Points to Defensive Breakdowns as Cause for Liverpool Struggles

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Goals have dried up for the Reds to start the 2022-23 season but goalkeeper Alisson Becker is more concerned by the lack of clean sheets.

Liverpool are one of the best teams in football and have proven that repeatedly over the past few seasons. If all you’d ever seen of them was the first three games of the 2022-23 Premier League season, though, you certainly wouldn’t know it.

Injuries have played a major role in that, but at the same time it could be said that most of the players starting over the past three games would have started or had key roles to play regardless—and they haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory.

“We believe we played in a few moments in the game better than them, but in a game you have to do everything to win and we couldn’t do that,” was goalkeeper Alisson’s reaction to the latest defeat, 2-1 at the hands of rivals Manchester United.

“We have to be more consistent to get back to the clean sheets. We have to play better with the ball, make better choices—we all agree on that. This is what we are going to chase next game. We made a few mistakes and you get punished for that.”

Part of why Liverpool were punished against United was because at this point, at least broadly speaking, teams know what to expect from this Liverpool side—it’s just that when they’re on their game it’s nearly impossible for anyone to stop them.

So far this season, and especially on Monday against United, Liverpool haven’t quite been on their game. The possible reasons, including that lengthy injury list, are many. Now it’s up to Jürgen Klopp and the players to figure out the solution.

“Teams know the way we play and they try to exploit that and they try to use that against us,” Alisson added. “Most times that works for us, sometimes we get punished. Tonight it is what happened. Sometimes we have to be more perfect in a game.

“It’s difficult to do that, but as a team being together we can do that and we can improve. We just have to keep working hard in our game in everything and defending with the ball.”