Alisson Admits Frustration With Poor Starts And Lack Of Confidence

Liverpool suffered another 3-0 loss yesterday, this time at the hands of Wolverhampton. The match followed the same script as many of the Reds’ matches this season. They went down early thanks to a poor start and, despite better play in the second half, they didn’t have enough energy, confidence, or tactical nous to mount a comeback. It felt familiar to anyone who has watched LFC lately, including the players.

“I think it happened the same as we have done in the other games,” said goalkeeper Alisson Becker after the match. “We are not having consistency at all – I mean consistency [of] playing 90 minutes really focused and doing everything that we have to do on the pitch. In the first 15 minutes, we started the game not in a good way and we get punished for that, conceding two goals.”

“We are not in the situation where we are confident, that confident to come back, but we tried. We did a good second half and then we concede again: you don’t score and you concede again, so it’s completely frustrating from my side.”

While the second half was certainly better and the Reds were maybe unlucky not to at least get one, they still didn’t do enough to deserve a positive result after such a disappointing opening stanza.

“It looks like in the game we were two steps behind in the first 15 minutes and then we make one step forward,” said Alisson. “So we still need to do more steps because of the result. The step forward was the performance of the second half, it changed a lot, it was two completely different sides if you watch the game and we have to take that for the next game – using the chances that we have and stop conceding silly goals.”

The possibility that the minimum goal of finishing top four and qualifying for next year’s Champions League is already out of reach is impossible to ignore, but, according to Alisson, the players need to find a way to not worry about the end result of the season and focus on being better next time out. While “one game at a time” is a classic cliché, he’s certainly not wrong. The focus needs to be on improving and finding form in each game.

“We have to think on the next games, that’s what we have in [our] hands. We are not in a position to think too much about what we can do at the end of the season, we have to think about what we can do better now and to win the next game that is in front of us. That’s it.”