Whether Liverpool should have replaced Caoimhin Kelleher with Alisson as soon as he returned to full fitness is up for debate, but one thing that isn't in question is just how good a goalkeeper the Brazilian is.
In the early stages of the Reds' Champions League meeting with Girona on Tuesday night, Alisson was called in to action on a number of occasions and proved exactly why he is so highly regarded with some reliable goalkeeping.
First of all, he sprung down low to his left to deny Alejandro Frances, before Tottenham loanee Bryan Gil was thwarted in a one-on-one with the 32-year-old.
Girona's flurry continued and Alisson was forced into action again a couple of minutes later, denying midfielder Miguel Gutierrez with a diving save high to his left. Arne Slot will no doubt have been pleased to see Alisson display no signs of ring-rust after a lengthy period on the sidelines.
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock was on co-commentary duty for the match for BBC Radio 5 Live and commented: “Van Dijk is looking around at the Liverpool players and saying 'what's going on?'. Alisson has now made three big saves already when Liverpool had been so comfortable early on. Girona are patient down the left and found that cross but what a second save by Alisson. He had to be alert to that."
Alisson was good against Girona (Image: AFP or licensors)
Alisson sustained a hamstring injury during a win against Crystal Palace at the beginning of October and the injury ended up sidelining him for 11 matches. Northern Ireland international Kelleher started 10 of those and acquitted himself well, leading to many soccer fans questioning whether Alisson should automatically come back into the team.
Arne Slot consistently maintained that he would restore Alisson to the side when he was back to full fitness, and he explained his decision against Girona during a pre-match interview with TNT Sports.
"It feels really good, first of all for him, but definitely also for us," Slot said. "He's worked really hard just to come back. We didn't want to take any risk at all, so that's why we didn't put him in earlier. Now he's in our opinion completely ready to start fitness wise, so it's good to have him back, although I think everybody has seen how well Caoimhin has done for us, also."