Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola steps off the club's coach and is pictured next to the club badge
Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola must back Giorgi Mamardashvili or Alisson Becker
Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola is facing a big dilemma over the coming months, with James Pearce suggesting he will either need to back one of the club’s long-serving stars to keep performing at his very best for longer, or turn the page on him and bank on the £30m replacement they have already signed.
The Jurgen Klopp years at Anfield were built around the bedrock of several household names, and few can claim to be as important to that as Alisson Becker – a man who many regard as the greatest goalkeeper in the club’s illustrious history.
Having been brought for a whopping £66.8m (€72.5m, $88.5m) from Roma in 2018 – which still to this day sits second on the biggest fees ever spent on a goalkeeper – Liverpool have had their money’s worth from the Brazilian, and then some.
But with succession planning very much a key phrase in the recently ended Richard Hughes era at Anfield, Liverpool decided to splash out a hefty £29.6m to bring in Giorgi Mamardashvili as his long-term heir.
However, the towering Georgian has not yet lived up to expectations and, with Alisson now looking back to something close to his best after a difficult 2025/26 campaign, Liverpool and boss Iraola suddenly find themselves with a major decision to make.
According to respected journalist James Pearce, Mamardashvili is already growing impatient with playing second fiddle at Anfield and is not prepared to wait much longer to see whether Liverpool trust him with the gloves.
And with Alisson’s deal due to expire next summer, and with talks over a renewal yet to take place, the Reds find themselves in a major quandary in deciding who to back.
Per The Athletic reporter, one of the pair will have to leave in 2027…
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“If Alisson does stay, Mamardashvili isn’t going to tolerate being backup for a third successive season,” Pearce told the Walk On podcast.
“If Alisson stays, that probably means that Mamardashvili goes, and then they’ve invested a lot of money in this young Belgian goalkeeper, Lucca Brughmans.
“Then you’ve got [Vitezslav] Jaros; he’ll be back in a few months. They’ve got Armin Pecsi, who’s out on loan in Austria at the moment.
“I get the feeling that they’re quite happy with what they’ve got further down the line in terms of five, six, seven years’ time, but the immediate future is really uncertain.”
If Alisson were a few years younger, then the choice would be a simple one, though it was surely his age in mind – the Brazilian is 34 on October 2 – and his dwindling contract that prompted the Reds to move for Mamardashvili.
The jury, though, still remains out on the former Valencia man, who has not looked convincing when called upon and has significantly weaker distribution than his rival.
That will be a concern to Iraola. Off the back of this, though, a report this week claims the 6ft 7in star is pushing Iraola for more minutes this season. To counter that, though, it’s claimed Iraola has responded by insisting he will continue to back Alisson, unless the latter picks up an injury.
The situation is further complicated by the arrival of 18-year-old Brughmans, who the Reds recently splashed out £30m for.
The teenager will spend the season on loan at Genk, where he made his breakthrough, and our transfer correspondent Graeme Bailey has revealed the Reds’ long-term plans for the star and how they beat both Arsenal and Real Madrid to his signature.
A high-profile goalkeeper exit is not the only thing on the agenda next year, with this report revealing Iraola’s decision on whether to sell a rarely seen Liverpool winger.