Much is made of Pep Guardiola's innovative use of his goalkeepers, particularly the abilities of Ederson with his feet for Manchester City.
However, it appears Guardiola's philosophies are indirectly helping Liverpool, as their goalkeeper Alisson has opened up on how he was trained to play like a Guardiola team as a youngster.
Alisson and Liverpool are in direct competition with City for the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup this season, with Alisson also battling with Ederson for the number one jersey for Brazil. The two are arguably the best two goalkeepers in the Premier League, and comparisons are naturally made between them regularly.
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Now, in an interview with former City goalkeeper David James for Sony Sports India, Alisson says Guardiola was the inspiration for one of his coaches who instilled the need for keepers to be comfortable with their feet as well as with their hands.
He said: "I think the big thing is having confidence. You get confidence from doing things, from playing. You need to have a team which likes to play with the goalkeeper as well and you need to have a manager who gives you the freedom to play because you can be good [for the team].
"But if your players turn their back to you when you have the ball, you can only kick long balls and work like that."
"I have the skills that are needed but I worked a lot on it when I was playing for my youth team. I had a manager once who loved the Guardiola team from Barcelona which used the goalkeeper a lot, so he tried to do that with his team in the U20s and it helped me a lot.
"Then I went to Rome and improved a little bit, but here at Liverpool is the place that I feel most comfortable because the players really want me to be an extra player on the pitch."
Reflecting on Liverpool's title chances, Alisson said: "The Premier League is tough. It’s hard to win. There are a lot of good teams and the level is improving, improving, improving – not only the teams at the top but the others as well.
"So yes, we need to stay focused, thinking game by game and then see what will happen. We have a good team. We have a team who can fight for it."
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