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Alisson Becker of Liverpool celebrates their first goal to make the score 1-0 during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Bournemouth at Anfield on August 27th 2022 in Liverpool, England.

5 players Alisson is overshadowing with goals & assists: Hazard, Gibbs White…

Planet Football β€’

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson is known as one of the Premier League’s best goalkeepers. His heroics between the sticks have dug Jurgen Klopp’s Reds out of a hole on more than one occasion. He even contributes to the attack.

Adept with his feet – and his head – the Brazilian has four direct goal contributions during his time in the Premier League. His latest assist means that he’s either scored or assisted for Liverpool in each of the last four seasons.

Former Leeds and Tottenham ‘keeper Paul Robinson (four goals, one assist) is the only player in the position to have registered more direct goal contributions than Alisson.

Here are five players overshadowed by the Liverpool No.1 when it comes to goals and assists.

Morgan Gibbs-White

By pumping it long for Mohamed Salah’s match-winning goal against Manchester City, Alisson moved level for direct goal contributions with Nottingham Forest’s record signing.

Like Alisson, Gibbs-White has three Premier League assists and one Premier League goal. Given he cost a pretty penny and is nominally an attacking midfielder, unfavourable comparisons to a goalkeeper’s key attacking metrics went viral on Twitter.

To be fair to the England Under-21 international, the majority of his Premier League appearances (37 of 57) have been off the bench, while two of his three Premier League assists have come this season for Forest. Last season, Gibbs-White was named Sheffield United’s Player of the Year after hitting double figures for goals (12) and assists (10) in the Championship. You imagine by the end of the season he’ll be clear of Alisson.

Aaron Wan Bissaka

It’s probably for good reason that Wan Bissaka has a reputation as a more defensively-minded full-back. In 132 Premier League appearances for Crystal Palace and Manchester United, he’s registered 11 assists and scored just two goals.

The 24-year-old is undoubtedly one of the Premier League’s best tacklers but has fallen out of favour at Old Trafford due to how little he offers in the final third. He’s played just four minutes of Premier League football under new boss Erik ten Hag, having failed to register a goal or assist for the Red Devils in the entirety of last season.

Alisson has scored in the Premier League more recently than Wan Bissaka. He’s also notched two assists since the right-back last set one up in the league for United.

Eden Hazard

Being a defensively-minded full-back is one thing. Being a €100million winger and Real Madrid’s all-time record signing is another entirely.

To be fair to Hazard, in 2022 he’s won the La Liga title and lifted the Champions League trophy, although he had very little to do with either. He’s registered fewer assists (none) this calendar year than Alisson and is currently enduring a goal drought in the Spanish top flight longer than Alisson’s in the Premier League.

The Belgian last scored in La Liga on May 9th, 2020. Alisson’s match-winning header against West Brom came a week later.

David de Gea

To be fair to De Gea, goals and assists are not what any goalkeeper should be judged on. There have been long phases over the years where the Spaniard has carried out his primary duty brilliantly and been the Premier League’s standout shot-stopper.

But while Alisson has very occasionally delivered something extra for Liverpool, De Gea has failed to notch a single assist in 387 Premier League appearances for United. In fact, in 501 appearances in all competitions for the Red Devils, De Gea only has one assist – for Wayne Rooney in the Champions League back in 2013, when Bayer Leverkusen’s defenders failed to deal with his big punt upfield.

Some might argue De Gea should’ve got the assist for Edinson Cavani’s wonderstrike against Fulham, although discounting Bruno Fernandes’ flick-on might have seen the goal ruled out for offside.

Joe Gomez

Now’s not the time to be criticising Gomez. In the last week alone, he whipped in a Trent Alexander-Arnold-esque ball for Roberto Firmino in Liverpool’s 7-1 victory over Rangers and produced a man-of-the-match display against Manchester City, earning renewed calls for an England call-up.

Stilll, the fact remains that since arriving at Liverpool in 2018, Alisson has more Premier League assists (3-1) and goals (1-0) than his Liverpool team-mate.

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