Alisson: Liverpool have the ‘best goalkeeper in the world’ – but the future is complicated

It may have been the performance of a lifetime. It certainly felt the outstanding goalkeeping display in the European competition, with save after save. Not Alisson against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday; or not just, anyway. The Brazilian saved nine shots from Paris Saint-Germain. Go back to last summer and Giorgi Mamardashvili stopped 11 efforts from the Czechia team in Hamburg in Euro 2024.

He equalled the record for the most saves in a European Championship game, preventing 2.26 expected goals. Indeed, while Georgia exited in the last 16, he made far more saves – some 29 – than any other goalkeeper in the competition.

All of which can put Liverpool in both an enviable and an awkward position. Alisson’s heroics in the French capital prompted both Arne Slot and Virgil van Dijk to call him the world’s best goalkeeper. Neither Dutchman is prone to hyperbole. Each comment had an added intrigue as Liverpool have already signed a man with the potential to claim that title in the future.

It could represent a superb piece of succession planning, like replacing Ray Clemence with Bruce Grobbelaar. Except that Alisson is only 32, only eight years older than Mamardashvili. They belong to different generations, with the Georgian born in the 21st century, but the senior figure is scarcely yesterday’s man.

Under Fenway Sports Group’s ownership, Liverpool have proved willing to discard those seemingly at the peak of their powers, making them look prescient when Sadio Mane and Gini Wijnaldum declined elsewhere. Yet there are few reasons to believe Alisson is similarly on the brink: he could have another five years at his best. When Saudi Arabian clubs expressed an interest in him in the summer of 2023, Jurgen Klopp was unworried, rationalising a player who was nowhere near the end was less likely to be tempted to go. Alisson rejected further Saudi approaches in 2024. When Liverpool bought Mamardashvili last summer, loaning him back to Valencia for the season, it prompted the question if they knew Alisson was leaving in 2025: yet, unless he has a rethink about Saudi Arabia, with no obvious destination, with it seemingly too early to head back to Brazil.

So there is the potential scenario that Slot has to decide between two of the world’s finest. This week’s comments could have been construed as a message to Mamardashvili, a warning about the prospective pecking order. Slot adapted the managerial mantra of never talking about another club’s players to try and not talk about one of Liverpool’s; if nothing else, it is a new deflection tactic.

“I think he is at Valencia and in just as important a phase of the season as we are in so it wouldn’t be smart for me to talk about a player that maybe belongs to us but [isn’t here],” he said. “But in general I can say if you want to play for Liverpool, you have to accept that there is competition. In Liverpool if you don’t want to face competition then it is not the best place to go to.”

Yet there is competition, and competition. For now, Federico Chiesa’s outings are limited by the presence of Mohamed Salah. Goalkeeper is the one position that does not even permit cameos. And while Slot may have the best second-choice keeper in the game now, he has always been clear that Caoimhin Kelleher is the back-up: even when he was saving Kylian Mbappe’s penalty and starring against Real Madrid, Alisson’s primacy was underlined. The Irishman had been the Carabao Cup specialist, until Slot parachuted Alisson in for the first leg of the semi-final against Tottenham.

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His mastery in one-on-one situations, his big-game record, his unflustered temperament: all offer reassurance. Alisson can be an impassable barrier for opposing strikers and alternative goalkeepers alike. Mamardashvili may be enduring a more underwhelming season with Valencia – conceding 4.6 more goals than he should, according to expected goals, whereas last season he prevented the most in the division, 10.2 – but he could join with a status, a pedigree and an expectation that Kelleher, well as he has done, has never had.

The Irishman is likely to leave, with a year left on his contract and first-team football wanted. It could mean Liverpool’s summer business includes finding a new second choice, unless the highly-rated Vitos Jaros is promoted.

Because it is hard to see Mamardashvili content to spend a season on the bench, impossible to envisage Alisson there. It presents the kind of problem many of their rivals would want. While clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester United seem to have too few elite goalkeepers, Liverpool could have too many.

Perhaps Liverpool could park Mamardashvili back at Valencia for another year, if they win their battle against relegation. Maybe another club could take him on loan; sporting director Richard Hughes’ old club Bournemouth was a possible destination this year. It could seem possible that, if Liverpool think Alisson, whose contract expires in 2026, is their long-term No 1, that Mamardashvili never plays for them, that a £25m buy was an opportunistic signing, a business opportunity when he could be worth twice that.

Certainly Liverpool informed Alisson about the Georgian’s arrival before the deal was concluded, the Brazilian declaring it was a good idea but saying he is still young for a goalkeeper. It is still not clear what Mamardashvili’s imminent arrivals means yet, however. “Goalkeeper-wise, we are in a good place,” said Slot. But even a good place has its complications.