For the first time since he arrived as the most expensive goalkeeper in football history back in 2018, Alisson’s status as Liverpool’s number one was briefly called into question this summer. ‘Briefly’ being the operative word.

Liverpool completed the signing of Euro 2024 star Giorgi Mamardashvili at the end of August before promptly sending him back out on loan to his current employers, Valencia, for the rest of the season. The Georgian shot-stopper may be Liverpool’s goalkeeper of the future, but Alisson’s status as the main man of the moment was established during his first conversation with Arne Slot.

The fickle footballing fates don’t take heed of any club’s best laid plans. On the eve of October’s international break, Alisson sunk to the turf clutching his hamstring while beating the grass in frustration at another muscular injury. This is not the first enforced layoff of the goalkeeper’s trophy-laden tenure at Anfield, but it has come at an inopportune time as the Reds prepare for fixtures against Chelsea and Arsenal. Here’s how Liverpool have fared without their first-choice stopper in years gone by.

Alisson didn’t miss a minute of his first Premier League campaign, keeping 21 clean sheets while conceding just 22 goals as he won the Golden Glove award. The member of a family of goalkeepers – including his brother, mother, father and even great-grandfather – came within a point of winning a top-flight title. That lofty honour would arrive the following season.

It wasn’t until a trip to Watford on the eve of the COVID-19 lockdown that Alisson lost his first Premier League game against a club not called Manchester City. The bitter taste of defeat became increasingly familiar as Liverpool stumbled into a prolonged slump in front of Anfield’s empty stands during the ghostly setting of the 2020/21 campaign.

While the Reds emphatically failed to defend their first league title in 30 years, they did manage to salvage Champions League qualification thanks in no small part to Alisson’s memorable winner against West Bromwich Albion in May 2021. “I’ve never seen anything like that, good technique,” Klopp gushed after watching the gloved figure flick a perfect header beyond his opposite number. “I wasn’t sure what I was seeing.”

Alisson’s best work has since come inside his own penalty box. The Brazilian won his second Golden Glove in 2021/22, but arguably enjoyed his best campaign the following year. Despite slumping to fifth in the league while conceding more than a goal per game for the first time in his Premier League career, Alisson’s underlying numbers exploded.

The former Roma custodian shipped 41 goals (not including own goals) but was faced chances which would have resulted in 51 goals against an average shot-stopper, per FBref. That was the best record of any goalkeeper in Europe’s top five leagues.

Klopp was not alone in hailing Alisson as “the best goalkeeper in the world” last term and Slot has had little reason to lose any confidence in his number one this season.

Five minutes before half-time in the opening game of his second season, Alisson pulled up against Norwich City in August 2019. Liverpool were forced to turn to Adrian, who had only joined the club four days earlier. Not only did the Merseyside giants avoid defeat during Alisson’s nine-match absence that season, but they didn’t even drop points.

In fact, the Reds have only lost two of the 28 top-flight matches without their starting goalkeeper since his arrival in 2018. The first of those rare reversals was the infamous and insane 7-2 shellacking at Aston Villa in October 2020.

Adrian kickstarted the chaos with an errant pass inside the opening four minutes which Jack Grealish snaffled up. “We played into their hands,” a steaming Klopp fumed post-game. The former West Ham keeper was not on his best form but the entire team crumbled on that unforgettable afternoon. As Klopp bluntly put it: “We kind of lost the plot.”

There was no collective head loss in Liverpool’s 1-0 reverse to Brighton in February 2021 – the only other league game without Alisson which the Reds have lost – but it did represent the Seagulls’ first Anfield victory since 1982.

On the face of it, Liverpool have actually performed better without their undisputed first-choice goalkeeper. The Reds boast a superior win rate and have an improved points-per-game ratio during Alisson’s sporadic absences.

However, these victories have been far more porous. Liverpool have only kept eight top-flight clean sheets without Alisson while shipping a considerably higher average of goals. Moreover, the Reds have also been fortunate enough to face teams inside the relegation zone in more than a third of the matches which Alisson has missed (twice as often as when the Brazilian is in the team).

Slot’s side have been afforded no such luck during the number one’s impending absence, with successive league fixtures against Chelsea and Arsenal on either side of a Champions League tie away to unbeaten Bundesliga high-flyers, RB Leipzig.

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