Alisson now giving Liverpool real problem but incredible solution is available

In the second part of his latest column, John Aldridge ponders how a change in football could be affecting Alisson Becker's fitness

Alisson Becker is now giving Liverpool a real problem but incredible solution is already available

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Is it time to start worrying about the injury record of Alisson Becker? Once again, the Liverpool goalkeeper has been struck by a hamstring problem having pulled up towards the end of the win at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

There’s no doubt Alisson is a bit unfortunate. But it’s happening a little too often for my liking, certainly when compared to goalkeepers of the past at the club. The likes of Tommy Lawrence, Ray Clemence and Bruce Grobbelaar would go hundreds of games in succession without suffering an injury.

Perhaps Alisson’s injuries are a product of how the game has changed for goalkeepers in the modern era. In the old days, keepers weren’t expected to be quite so proficient with their feet and, of course, could pick up backpasses.

Nowadays you often get keepers – such as Alisson – who are pretty good outfield footballers in their own right. But that opens them up to the same kind of injuries as the rest of their team-mates.

Let’s hope Alisson can get over this as soon as possible because he is so important to us.

But it helps that the person replacing him, Caoimhin Kelleher, is probably the best second-choice keeper in England and maybe Europe, and would walk into most other Premier League starting line-ups.

The standard Kelleher can produce when he comes in, given he often has had long spells waiting, is incredible. Think about the League Cup finals in which he has played, the run in the side last season, he makes good saves and had been absolutely fantastic.

Everybody has got massive confidence in him. From a selfish point of view, I’d want him to stay at Liverpool for as long as possible, he is still relatively young and has a fruitful career ahead of him.

Who knows? That could still be with the Reds despite the arrival next summer of Giorgo Mamardashvili.

And to be fair, from what I’ve seen so far of Vitezslav Jaros, he’s no mug either. He’s going to be a proper goalkeeper.

Nunez needs minutes

Darwin Nunez looks like he will be able to play for Uruguay during the international break following the successful appeal over his ban. And I think it would be good for him to get some minutes under his belt.

He has looked rusty in recent performances and, in truth, has done all season. He had one good game against Bournemouth but in general he hasn’t quite been at it.

It will have been difficult for him being on the bench so much. It’s okay being fit, but there’s nothing better than match fitness.

You can run up the hills and the sand dunes and be the fittest man in the world, but if you are then thrown in for 90 minutes of football then you are going to struggle.

Your brain isn’t properly aware of what is going on, your sharpness isn’t there, you aren’t seeing things as well as you might and your passes are off. It’s a completely different type of fitness.

As for the international break, the more you go on about players potentially being tired then the more they think about it – you give them an excuse.

Having said that, in our day we were only travelling around Europe. Now Premier League players are going back to play in South America and beyond. It’s a long way – of course it’s going to affect you. That is natural.

It’s important to take advantage of all the latest advances in science. But sometimes it can be a little bit in the heads of players as an excuse.

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