ReactionAlisson Becker on Fulham draw: 'We didn't play well and are not happy with that'
The Reds were thwarted in their aim of chalking up a third consecutive victory as stalemate reigned in the Premier League clash.
Post-match at Anfield, the goalkeeper gave his assessment of the afternoon. Read Alisson’s reaction below.
On his saves in the game and Liverpool’s performance on the day…
It’s important to be always ready to help the team – but it was a poor performance, in some moments even from myself, but from the team. Collectively, we didn’t play well. Many things we tried to do, we couldn’t do it well. We couldn’t press them well. In the first half we spent too much energy trying to press them in a good way, but we couldn’t. Obviously, it’s a big challenge to play Wednesday night and Saturday evening, and you have another game Tuesday. But we need to get the right mentality to do that and I think it wasn’t the case today. We have to improve for the next one.
On the first-half incident in which the Reds lost the ball in their own box…
Sometimes teams who want to play take some risks. Sometimes it doesn’t go the way you want – maybe it is not the perfect pass, maybe it is too risky. But then the important thing is what you do after that and you have to adapt. Because if you come to the game and prepare something and it doesn’t go well, that’s the challenge you have – what you are going to do in the next moment you’re going to have the ball? That was important for me and for the team to try to do the best as we could against a team who was really well organised, pressing high. With the ball they have quality, they are comfortable on the ball. We tried not to let them be comfortable on the ball, but they have their qualities. And we didn’t create as many chances as we expected that we would create, that we could create. That’s the challenge we have to make much better on the next game.
On whether the midweek win over Atletico Madrid took anything out of the players…
It takes out, but we recovered the best way we could. This is the challenge [for] every big team who are playing in all competitions. If we want to do something special this season we have to cope with that. To play a big game on Wednesday night, another one on Saturday, then next Tuesday you have another one, then on Sunday again. It’s what we want. But you need to have the right mindset; I think it wasn’t the case from what we showed this afternoon. Deep inside we have it, we just need to put it out. The quality we have, we have so many top players, but we need to take and put more energy on the pitch for the next games.
On the squad adapting and developing under Andoni Iraola to ‘put it all together’…
It’s not easy. That’s another thing as well that is a challenge – when you change manager. But he is doing really well, he is helping us in so many ways. Wednesday night, the first half wasn’t the best and then he helped us to change at half-time, giving the right instructions for the team. On a daily basis as well, preparing the team as best as he can. His staff as well [are] helping everyone; we have a good environment as well, a good atmosphere in the training ground. Everybody is excited about the new signings as well, about the quality we have in our squad.
It can take some time for us to adapt to that, but we need to do that as quick as we can because we don’t have time to waste. We are not happy at all with a draw, that’s not something that should happen with Liverpool. Unbeaten with three draws is not something to celebrate too much with this shirt – we celebrate being unbeaten if we win the games. We take the clean sheet for today but we are not happy at all. We wanted the three points. We need to aim for big things. But we are going to keep fighting, keep preparing, keep training hard and try to perform as best as we can, and try to win.