Liverpool defeated Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 to make it nine points out of nine there was a nervy moment in the match as Alisson flicked the ball over Anthony Knockaert.

The moment came in the second half as the Brighton forward raced towards a pass to the Brazilian.

Normally, any other keeper would have whacked the ball out of play and blasted his defence for leaving him short-changed but Alisson drew the breath of the Anfield faithful with a deft flick over Knockaert’s head and calmly passed it to Virgil van Dijk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK6CAigNV9Y

There were a few “oohs” and “aahs” coming from the stands but it did leave me with a momentary heart-attack.

Jurgen Klopp had his say about the flick and defended his keeper while Alisson also stated that he doesn’t mind dribbling with the ball as long as he can help the team play out from the back.

The Brazilian was quoted by the Mirror as saying:

“I try my best to help the team in the build-up.

“If sometimes there is a situation where there is dribbling, I do it carefully.

“It could be too risky, but it’s part of the game, we are a team that plays from the back with the ball on the ground.

“That’s part of the team’s characteristics. Mistakes may happen, but we work hard during the week to everything correctly during the matches.”

Just keep it simple at the start

And there lies the issue. Alisson himself believes that mistakes will happen and the last thing we need is a goalkeeper trying to be too clever with the ball and getting caught out.

We all remember how difficult it was for Loris Karius to regain his confidence after a number of high-profile errors. The first one I can remember is against Bournemouth a couple of years ago, where we let go of a 2-0 lead and lost the game 4-3, thanks to a last-minute Nathan Ake goal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C15chOxG-BY

Karius was unable to get his rhythm back and made a glaring error in the Champions League final too as he threw the ball straight to Karim Benzema for the opening goal.

The keeper was trying to pass the ball out to our defender and start building from the back, similar to what Alisson’s job is at Liverpool currently.

Of course, the Brazilian has a better range of distribution compared to Karius and Simon Mignolet, and we should exploit this to our advantage.

However, the one aspect of his play that needs to be cut out is taking unnecessary risks. The Premier League is a lot less forgiving than the Serie A and teams would have paid attention to Alisson’s playing style after the first three games of the season.

The 25-year-old is great with his hands and is a commanding presence in the box. We missed these attributes with the likes of Karius and Mignolet between the sticks and so, he seems to be an upgrade on the pair already.

That said, he need not completely cut out his dribbling and passing. However, he must work towards reducing the unnecessary tricks and flicks for a few months at least.

The Brazilian has flair, that’s proven with the three games we have seen. But more often than not, blasting a loose ball away and organizing the defence is a better call than trying to play it out from the back.

Read more: Jurgen Klopp hints at squad rotation and laments that Liverpool ‘lost the plot’

We have a pretty good side at the moment and do not need another debate on our goalkeepers this season.