Alisson on beating Man Utd 7-0, Liverpool title chances and Onana struggles

Alisson speaks ahead of Liverpool's clash with Manchester United after a 7-0 victory last season and with the Reds top of the Premier League

Alisson Becker on beating Man Utd 7-0, Liverpool title chances and Andre Onana struggles

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As the goals rained down on the Manchester United goal back on March 5, few had a better vantage point of the historic event unfolding at Anfield than Alisson Becker down the other end.

With the Liverpool goalkeeper watching on as the most interested spectator while his team-mates laid waste to David de Gea's goal at the Kop End, the Reds added a further six to Cody Gakpo's first-half opener to secure a remarkable 7-0 win that, even for the all the achievements and success under Jurgen Klopp, is still hard to fathom nine months on.

It was the biggest win for either side in this age-old fixture, surpassing Liverpool's 7-1 triumph in the 1895-96 Second Division when United were known as Newton Heath and the Reds were less than four years old as a football club. It was a ruthless evisceration that means United head to Anfield this weekend having conceded 11 without reply on their last two visits.

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Some 287 days on from that unforgettable scalping and Alisson and his colleagues are once more preparing to renew hostilities with arguably their most fierce of Premier League rivals; a side who have already lost seven of 16 games this term and one who find themselves 10 points off the Reds, whose recent run of 13 from the last 15 points available has taken them to top spot.

But what would be the motivation for Alisson if the shoe had been on the other foot this weekend? Just what frame of mind would one of the world's best goalkeepers enter the most watched club fixture on the planet, if he had been on the other end of such a humiliating result?

"I would be on fire, I think," he says in an interview with a handful of media outlets at the club's AXA Training Centre. "And I would try to set my team-mates on fire as well. I already played against Liverpool and I know how strong this team can be at Anfield. I lost that game (for Roma in 2018) and it wasn’t a good experience in terms of the result, but this is the kind of game you want to play in.

"The players from Liverpool FC, from Chelsea, from Manchester United, from Manchester City, they are players that have to enjoy playing in this kind of game. I enjoy it a lot when we play against big opponents.

"As a football player, as an elite athlete, you are going to try to use it to motivate yourself. I don’t know much about the Man United players so I don’t know what they are going to do, but I’m sure they are coming here to try and get the result from us. We are focused on getting the three points.

"I was worried about not conceding as I always do in every game. You can’t start to think about the results, the amount of goals we scored, only after the game. In football you don’t have too much time to think about it because in three days you have another game and if you don’t win then it doesn’t matter if you won 7-0 against your biggest rivals.

"It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the fans to talk about and you feel amazing but we have to deal with these kinds of feelings and focus on the next challenge.

"From our side, that game is in the past. It’s a good thing for the supporters to talk about and remember but we have a different team now, we are in a different moment, new players came in, so we have big goals for the season. We want to try to do everything to win the game, no matter how big the score."

It’s a scoreline that does bare repeating but if the 7-0 shellacking of United was the most unbelievable result during Alisson's time against the Red Devils, it is not the one that is most imbued with meaning and significance.

That came in January 2020 when a long punt towards Mohamed Salah resulted in the Egyptian scoring the goal that had the Kop finally believing that a painful 30-year wait for league title No.19 was finally coming to an end.

Salah's calm finish to make it 2-0 on the day sent Liverpool 16 points clear of Manchester City in second and had the supporters boldly - and belatedly - admitting: "We're gonna win the league!" It's a moment that is referenced regularly when talk of that title-winning campaign resurfaces.

Such was the accuracy of Alisson's assist that the Brazil international was first on the scene to celebrate with the shirtless Salah, racing from his goal before the forward had even slotted past De Gea. It’s one of the many famous images from the most memorable of seasons.

He says: "The supporters felt that. We were feeling as players at that moment that we had a big chance to win the league - beating Man Utd, one of your biggest rivals, at home, with that atmosphere and scoring goals like Mo’s with my assist. It makes you feel really good and gives you a big boost.

"But I think now it is not that case. We are in a different moment. We want to win in a consistent way. We have to perform better as well - better than what we are doing - but I think we will get there.”

“I think by that time (in 2020) it was a different time and different moment for that team. We have to slow down [now], not our pace, but talking about the title race because we are a team that is rebuilding.

"That is what we are doing here. We are rebuilding a team. Of course we want to win the league, of course we want to beat every opponent that we have. But we have to be focused always on the closest thing we have now. That game was amazing for that time. It sent a message to our supporters."

Perhaps inevitably, the conversation turns to United's current incumbent between the sticks, Andre Onana, whose start to life at Old Trafford has been conspicuous due to a number of eye-catching errors that have undermined an assurance in possession that was rarely evident in his predecessor, De Gea.

United paid around £45m to land the Cameroon international from Serie A giants Inter after his performances had helped take the Nerazzurri to the Champions League final but the shot-stopper’s adaptation has been blighted by several glaring mistakes just a few weeks into his tenure.

As a card-carrying member of the goalkeeper's union, however, Alisson speaks glowingly about Onana's ability in an engaging conversation to preview Sunday's showdown and the Brazil star even sees similarities with his United counterpart’s career.

"Onana is, of course, a really good goalkeeper," Alisson says. "The Champions League he played last season was amazing, the way he performed, but in my career I went through something similar to what he is living.

"Coming from an Italian club to England, to a big club, for a lot of money. This is a lot of responsibility over your shoulders and he came here with the responsibility to be the replacement for De Gea, who maybe was not in the best shape of his career but he was still delivering.

"He delivered so many good things for Manchester United and so many appearances for Manchester United and [to replace that] is a big step in your career.

"I think he is capable of this responsibility, but sometimes it takes longer with some than others. You are changing team, you are changing league, they are trying to adapt and discover themselves and that can affect you alot.

"I was lucky in that I was coming to a team that was with everything already going in a different way, that was building, so I think he will get there. He needs to be patient, he needs to do that with everything that is going on in his life in the best way that he can and I think he is someone who is in this moment needs the support of everybody."

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