Alisson’s mind and body were still on international duty for City v Liverpool

In the space of 72 hours, Alisson had gone from facing Lionel Messi at a sultry Maracana to fending off Erling Haaland at Ice Station Etihad. It was an adaptation to test any goalkeeper, and yet nobody had expected the Brazilian to deliver quite such a smorgasbord of slip-ups.

In one hapless first-half spell, he contrived to pass straight to Phil Foden, before dawdling on the ball so long that Haaland almost wrested it away. By the time the Norwegian punished his inept clearance for a 50th Premier League goal, you could not help but wonder if his usual reflexes were as scrambled as his body clock.

Jurgen Klopp had been scathing about this early lunchtime kick-off, which he deemed unsuitable for a game of such import. “Honestly, the people making these decisions, they cannot feel football, it’s just not possible,” he said, lamenting how he would only have one training session with his South American players after their 6,000-mile journeys home. On this evidence, his fury was well-founded. Even if you have a private jet on stand-by, the crazily concertinaed schedule can take its toll.

The transition for Alisson proved especially brutal: after 90 minutes against Colombia in Barranquilla, he played another 90 in defeat to Argentina in Rio de Janeiro, before being asked to thwart the Premier League champions two and a half days later. In truth, he never came close to conjuring an answer. The story of how Liverpool rescued a point here was doubly remarkable for the fact that Alisson scarcely seemed to know which continent he was on. Even in the frantic finale, his radar went horribly awry as he produced two dreadful passes in his own penalty area before falling down holding his hamstring.

The injury concerns over Alisson and Diogo Jota left, Klopp admitted, a “shadow” over an otherwise creditable result. But it was the goalkeeper’s form that was most alarming of all. While it was Haaland who seized the spotlight by becoming the fastest player to reach a half-century of Premier League goals, the build-up to this landmark feat was defined solely by Alisson’s blundering. First he sliced a long hit-and-hope towards Mo Salah, watching it fall tamely in his own half as Haaland pounced. Five seconds later, he allowed the Norwegian’s scuffed shot to squirm underneath him.

In the circumstances, Klopp stayed commendably calm. You can imagine how Pep Guardiola, livid at Julian Alvarez for squandering two promising attacking positions for Manchester City, would have reacted had Ederson done the same. But there was scant danger of that, the Brazilian having pulled out of international duty with an injured foot. It could hardly have been better timed: where Ederson was a model of composure with inch-perfect distribution, Alisson was a walking warning for the effects of jetlag.

There was one brief spark, as he fashioned an inspired save at full stretch to deny Foden. Otherwise, this was grimly reminiscent of Alisson’s performance at Anfield in 2021, when he gifted City two goals to relinquish vital momentum in the title race. Thankfully for Liverpool, this grab-bag of goalkeeping horrors did not signal a similar watershed. They are, courtesy of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s beautifully-struck equaliser, still clinging to the champions’ coattails.

You did not have to look hard at the final whistle for signs of how much this mattered. For there, interrupting the managers’ warm handshakes, was Darwin Nunez, aiming a message at Pep Guardiola that appeared distinctly less cordial. Klopp denied that this rush of blood to the head was evidence of the two clubs’ “historic rivalry”. In reality, it is a rivalry that has barely lasted a decade. But the striker’s heated reaction revealed much about the restless energies that have come to define this duel.

On balance, the 1-1 scoreline flattered Liverpool. The decision to disallow a second City goal through Ruben Dias, after Manuel Akanji was adjudged to have fouled Alisson? Marginal, at best. If one hand into the shoulder can be deemed foul play, how did Joelinton escape punishment for putting two hands into the back of Gabriel during Newcastle’s win over Arsenal? It was a conundrum that defied easy resolution. All that could be said with confidence was that Alisson found himself at the heart of every drama.

For half an hour, his vulnerabilities were such that you expected City to make hay while the sun shone. With Jeremy Doku in electrifying form, and Haaland hungry for another preposterous individual feat, there was a danger of this turning into a procession. But it is a hallmark of “Liverpool reloaded”, as Klopp likes to call his latest creation, that their challenges seldom dwindle quietly. And Alexander-Arnold’s intervention brought priceless intrigue to the title battle just when City threatened to pull away.

Guardiola was in sanguine mood, fittingly enough for a manager whose team had failed to win at home for the first time all year. This was less a shattering blow than a temporary annoyance. The question is whether, in a five-way fight at the top, his players can afford to be so profligate again when so demonstrably superior. Somehow, Liverpool snatched a draw even when their goalkeeper’s mind and body were stranded somewhere over the mid-Atlantic. That, if nothing else, should give City pause for thought.

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