Liverpool were shocked at the weekend.
The reigning Premier League champions will have been backed to complete a relatively simple victory over Aston Villa at the weekend.
But their visit to Villa Park saw them lose 7-2 in perhaps the biggest upset the Premier League has ever seen.
Prior to the game, the Reds had beaten Leeds United, Chelsea, and Arsenal, so will have been relatively confident of a win over the Villans.
However, the goalkeeper who started the game against Dean Smith’s side was Adrian, rather than Alisson Becker, and the Spaniard made a serious mistake at the start of the game, handing Villa the lead.
He has not been in the best form since his move to the club, proving unintentionally pivotal in their Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid last season, and was again at fault at the weekend.
He also conceded twice against Lincoln City in, ironically, a 7-2 win for Liverpool in the EFL Cup third round, and failed to save a penalty in the shootout against Arsenal in the fourth round.
Alisson, then, is genuinely missed, but it seems that he will be facing a significant spell on the sidelines.
He is set to miss as many as six weeks, meaning he could miss Premier League games against Everton, Sheffield United, West Ham United, and Manchester City. In the Champions League, too, he could miss three group games – the Reds will face Ajax, Midtjylland, and Atalanta in their group.
And Alan Hutton, the former Scotland international right-back, thinks that the Reds are facing a severe issue as the season progresses.
Speaking to Football Insider, he said: “Looking at the Liverpool team from the outside, you would say missing the goalkeeper or van Dijk, they’re massive parts of what Liverpool want to do.
“It’s massive shoes to fill and it’s a problem. Alisson’s a fantastic goalkeeper with his feet, shot-stopping, just all round so they’re massive shoes to fill.”
GIVEMESPORT’S Harry Sherlock says…
Alisson is world-class. Adrian isn’t.
This is the clear difference between the pair.
Adrian is a bog-standard, run-of-the-mill goalkeeper, who is fine for the odd game.
For Liverpool, though, he is not a player they want to rely on, particularly if they want to compete in the Premier League and the Champions League.
To concede seven in his first league appearance of the season may well be something of an anomaly, but one has to wonder where the Reds would finish if they had to rely on the Spaniard throughout the season.
One can bet it wouldn’t as champions.