Champions League 2018/19 Tactical Analysis: Allison Becker – the key to Liverpool’s success?

The course of football has taken some radical shifts. From a direct route style to a possession-based style, football has constantly evolved. One such evolution concerns the role of goalkeepers. Long gone are the days where the goalkeeper had a great size and “scary” demeanour. The role of goalkeepers have changed and perhaps the perfect example of the evolved goalkeeper is Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker. Coming in to replace the mistake-prone Loris Karius, Alisson ended up costing Liverpool 75 million Euros, a world record deal. Since then, Alisson has helped Liverpool win the most coveted trophy of them all: The Champions League trophy. In this tactical analysis, we look at how he was critical to Liverpool’s Champion League success through the use of various statistics and analysis.

Alisson’s statistical aid to Liverpool

Alisson is a keeper who has, linearly, gotten better at saving shots and conceding less. In his 2017/18 season at Roma, Alisson had an expected conceded goals (xCG) of 69.01. xCG relates how many goals a goalkeeper should be conceding over a period of games.  

That season Alisson did better than expected, conceding only 53 goals. Even with these many goals conceded, Alisson helped Roma avoid 16 goals, an amount that can be a huge difference between a bad and good season.

In his 2018/19 season with Liverpool, Allison recorded expected conceded goals of 48.71. This may be because at Liverpool, Alisson got better midfielders and defenders such as Fabinho and Virgil van Dijk, respectively.  However, if it weren’t for Alisson’s big saves, for example, the ones against Napoli in the Champions League, Liverpool wouldn’t be at the stage where they are right now.

It is important to contrast Alisson’s performance with his predecessor, Karius. While it is certainly a shorter example, out of 35 Champions League and certain Premier League matches, starting in July of 2017 and ending in May of 2018, Karius had expected conceded goals of 25.07. He performed worse than his expected conceded goals, actually conceding 31 goals.

This improvement in terms of conceding goals, statistically, is one big reason for how Alisson has contributed to Liverpool’s success in the Champions League. While the statistics showcase the impact of Alisson on Liverpool, it is also important to dissect into the tactical nature of his impact.

Alisson aims to surprise opponents with special distribution technique

One of the elements in Alisson’s skill set is his ability to surprise. In a world where tactics are becoming more and more possession based and automatisms are getting instituted, it becomes essential for a team to have some sort of surprise.

Unexpected play foils the opponent’s game rendering an isolated (or a small group) player to deal with the situation on his or her own.

One of the ways Alisson brings surprise and unexpectedness in his game is his quick ability to spot free players on the wing flanks. Liverpool, as a team, fixates one of its attacking plans on counter-attacking football. Counter Attacking football is swift, direct, and, more times than not, creates numerical superiority for the team involved.

One of the ways Alisson institutes surprise into his distribution is through body language and long balls. Often, Alisson will face laterally. Through this, the opponent understands that Alisson is about to put the ball down and pass to his centre-backs. This implication is further emphasized by the proximity of Joel Matip and Van Dijk near Alisson.  

In a switch, however, Alisson uses his lateral positioning to launch a diagonal ball. As a right-footer, most of these diagonal balls are directed towards the left wing flank. This suits Liverpool’s game plan as it allows two Liverpool players, Sadio Mané and Trent Alexander-Arnold to double up against an isolated fullback or a fullback and midfield.

Alisson’s deceptive pass gets past a block of six Spurs players. This type of ingenuity was previously absent in Karius’ game. Notice how midfield of Spurs have to not only backtrack but also shift their positioning to the left (both movements shown in white). These movements allow for the creation of space for the Liverpool midfield.