‘Unreliable’ Liverpool player could soon be axed for £20m replacement

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The goalkeeper has faced some criticism for the way he dealt with Fenerbahce’s final, match-winning goal in particular, and according to Liverpool legend Steve Nicol, it may not be long before Iraola decides to give Giorgi Mamardashvili a run in the team instead.Alisson and Virgil van Dijk have made costly mistakes in recent weeks. Nicol has noticed this, and told ESPN that Alisson has become ‘unreliable’ with the ball at his feet, which has led to an erosion of trust from his defenders.

If you add the fact that he’s not making any saves anymore, has he got to the stage physically that he can’t be the goalkeeper he was?” READ MORE: Injured Liverpool player cleared to return against Crystal Palace on Sunday “I used to think ‘he’s going to save that,’ when certain centre forwards were running through and you’re thinking ‘he’s not scoring.’ There’s other centre forwards where you know it’s hitting the back of the net. When you’re playing with players, certainly when you’ve played with them for the amount of time that Van Dijk has played with Alisson, then that affects you as well, it affects your back line.” With his contract due to expire at the end of the season, Liverpool may soon be looking at life without Alisson regardless.

“It could be a bigger problem than it is, but then there might come a time when Mamardashvili has to step in and he has to get a run of games and let’s see what he’s got,” he said. Mamardashvili has faced plenty of question marks of his own since his £20m arrival from Valencia, but if Alisson continues on a worrying downward trend, there may come a point where Iraola decides he has no choice but to back the Georgian.