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Alisson Becker earned a good night’s sleep as Liverpool flew through the night back from Budapest.
He secured a 50th clean sheet for the Reds amid the backdrop of the biggest personal crisis of his tenure at Anfield on Tuesday night.
If that sounds dramatic, then it probably tells you how pristine his record has been during his two and a half years in Merseyside.
After two glaring – and completely avoidable – mistakes against Manchester City, Brazil’s No. 1 followed up with another misstep in Leicester on Saturday lunchtime.
Running from his goal to find a ball over the top is nothing new for Liverpool’s most expensive sweeper keeper in history, but rookie Ozan Kabak was caught in the crossfire.
The pair inadvertently collided to give Jamie Vardy his easiest goal of this season or any other.
Klopp explained the incident, which occurred in the middle of a seven-minute collapse at King Power, as a simple case of miscommunication.
The new Kabak was still learning how to defend in Liverpool, the coach argued.
It was a fair point given that the Turkish international had been in Liverpool for less than two weeks and about 80 minutes into his Premier League career.
But the world of soccer in general rarely hears mitigation.
And only those of petty persuasion would throw most of the blame at the young defender’s door on Alisson.
However, those mistakes were firmly brushed aside in the Hungarian capital on Tuesday night.
And that will have been the reason for Alisson’s relaxing nap on the way back from Ferihegy International.
After a poor streak of form, the Reds got back on track with a sure 2-0 win over RB Leipzig, setting foot in the Champions League quarter-finals in the process.
Alisson’s performance radiated calm as he looked back at his reliable best for much of the night at Puskas Stadium.
One save in particular, early in the second half from Christopher Nkunku, helped keep the score scoreless before Mohamed Salah struck.
When asked if the save was a great moment, Klopp said: “Definitely. But he had great moments in the Leicester game.
“Of course a clean sheet helps, as you can imagine. Ali will sleep very well on the plane on the way home!
“As always, it helped us a lot.”
Since arriving at Liverpool from Roma in July 2018, only Atlético de Madrid’s Jan Oblak and Manchester City’s Ederson have achieved more shutouts than Alisson’s 50.
His aberrations against Man City and Leicester may pass, but they haven’t done much to change the perception of how the goalkeeper looks on Liverpool’s field.
After all, the class is permanent and Alisson has it in abundance.
The following, however, is a team that you should be much more familiar with than he is.
Alisson has only kept Liverpool’s goal on three occasions against Everton, and fate conspired against him on several occasions in preparation for the Merseyside derbies.
He started both games in the 2018/19 campaign, but has only joined that since the forgettable goalless draw after the Premier League resumption in June last year.
An expulsion against Brighton in December 2019 saw him miss a 5-2 win against a scruffy Everton in the closing days of the Marco Silva era.
The 1-0 FA Cup victory the following month was also lost, while a shoulder problem caused Alisson to miss the now infamous 2-2 draw in October.
It is in keeping with a running theme under Klopp where he has been unable or unwilling to name his full-strength side in matches against local rivals.
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Only once, for example, has Klopp selected Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah together in their usual roles in the three forwards against Everton.
Last year’s Anfield game saw Klopp vindicated for his five changes as the unbridled Reds put the last nail in Silva’s coffin at Goodison Park.
However, fourteen months later, they will settle for the toughest of 1-0 victories as the fight for the top four really starts to flare up.
If he doesn’t get all three points, sleepless nights will really begin for Liverpool fans.
Even if Alisson hasn’t suffered much this week.
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