Neville pinpoints two moments to support Klopp's blazing Liverpool rant

25 November 2023 , 15:16

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Jurgen Klopp's pre-match complaints were justified by his goalkeeper's performance away to Manchester City (Image: AP)

Jurgen Klopp’s complaints over the timing of Liverpool’s crunch Premier League clash away to Manchester City appeared justified by Alisson’s performance at the Etihad Stadium.

The goalkeeper was in action for Brazil against Argentina in the early hours of Thursday morning and Klopp had warned two weeks ago that it was unfair to schedule the game at 12:30pm on Saturday with several South American stars on both sides.

And that was backed up by Gary Neville's initial reaction on Sky Sports to Alisson “making a mess” in the run-up to Erling Haaland's opening goal and his role in Ruben Dias’ disallowed goal.

Liverpool also had Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez and Argentina midfielder Alexis MacAllister in their starting XI, while Pep Guardiola named Argentina’s Julian Alvarez in his team - although City’s Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson was not involved for his nation in the past week.

The Reds still battled back to earn a share of the spoils at the Etihad thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold's low drive into the bottom corner 10 minutes from time.

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But when it came to Alisson gifting possession to Nathan Ake, in turn leading to Haaland scoring in the 27th minute, Neville was unreserved in his praise of the Norwegian goalscorer and heavily critical of the goalkeeper

“A giant of a striker, a giant of a man. This all emanates from a potential Liverpool attack that Alisson makes a mess of, it’s the difference between Nunez up that end and Haaland at the other,” he said. "That’s a world-class striker right there, the first touch is perfect, the second is even better and the third is in the back of the net.”

And when Alisson was judged to have been fouled while flapping at a corner kick in the run-up to Dias finding the net midway through the second half, former Manchester United defender Neville pointed a finger of blame at the Liverpool No1 again.

“I think Alisson has made a mess of this, he should be dealing with that, he needs to be a lot stronger," he said. “There’s a little bit of an elbow by Akanji in the back and Dias is there to poke it home but Alisson thinks he’s going to get the foul here. It’s a soft one and Alisson will be grateful to the officials.”

Alan Smith