Liverpool got back to winning ways with an excellent performance in Budapest
Alisson and Ozan Kabak may have had a calamitous mix-up at the weekend, but they put that behind them to turn in impressive performances against Leipzig on Tuesday night.
The pair were both solid as Liverpool set aside their domestic woes and emerged with a vital 2-0 win from the Puskas Arena.
Much criticism had been heaped upon the pair after their breakdown in communication allowed Jamie Vardy to score Leicester’s second in a 3-1 defeat for the champions, but they responded in the perfect manner as they held firm against the Bundesliga side in Budapest.
Second-half goals from Mo Salah and Sadio Mane made the difference, but it was Kabak who emerged with the most plaudits and was named Man of the Match.
The defensive work of Jurgen Klopp’s team was highlighted by former Blackburn and Celtic star Chris Sutton, who tweeted: “Great performance by Liverpool. Big save from Alisson at 0-0.
“Kabak solid and a couple of ruthless finishes. What crisis…”
Former Liverpool man Danny Murphy was vindicated in his earlier insistence that Klopp must stand by under-fire Alisson, who was also culpable for two goals in the recent 4-1 defeat against Manchester City.
Asked on talkSPORT ahead of the Champions League match if the Brazilian keeper should be dropped, he said: “No. Not yet. I don’t think we’re there yet.
“I don’t think the quality underneath him is good enough, and he’s an experienced guy.
“I as a player when I was having a bad spell – I know goalkeepers are more isolated in terms of how you judge them and every mistake’s a goal – when I was playing badly for a couple of games, it helped me if the manager had given me the confidence to let me play through it a little bit.
“Because what can happen when you remove someone from the team so quickly after a couple of games not playing well is that your confidence becomes even less. It just drains out of you, then you’ve got this mountain to climb to try and get back in.
“One good game for him and all of a sudden his confidence could be back.”
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