Surprise Liverpool changes offer hint on Alisson situation amid nine transfer shake-up

Alisson could be forgiven for thinking that the Liverpool earth is shifting beneath his feet this summer as he surveys the huge changes in the club's goalkeeping department.

The Brazilian stopper was often at his brilliant best last season as he played 28 times on the way to securing his second Premier League title.

But as well as the expected departure of his deputy Caoimhin Kelleher - who played in the other 10 league games - for Brentford, almost the entirety of Liverpool's gloved contingent has changed since the Reds lifted the trophy in May.

And Wednesday has seen conformation of the biggest change of all as far as Alisson is concerned, with his childhood hero and mentor Claudio Taffarel leaving the club.

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There was widespread surprise when Taffarel - the 101-cap Brazil hero who kept goal in two World Cup finals, winning one in 1994 - joined the staff at Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp in 2021, but he has proven to be an immensely popular figure at the club.

Having also worked with him for the Brazil national team, Alisson has regularly praised Taffarel's influence on his game, with the coach fostering a tight-knit goalkeeping unit at Kirkby which would often extend to South American-style barbecues at Alisson's home.

But Taffarel now departs Liverpool along with fellow goalkeeping coach Fabian Otte, who arrived with Arne Slot last summer and briefly went viral for his unorthodox methods which included making Liverpool goalkeepers train in noise-cancelling headphones and glasses which impaired vision.

In Taffarel and Otte's stead comes Xavi Valero, the former Wrexham goalkeeper who joined Rafa Benitez's Reds staff in 2007 and now returns to Liverpool as head of the club's goalkeeping after 15 years away.

As well as Liverpool, Valero worked under Benitez at Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid and Hebei China Fortune, before joining West Ham in 2018.

Valero comes in along with headline arrival Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who takes the position of Slot's assistant coach which was vacated when John Heitinga took over as the new Ajax boss this summer after just one year at Anfield.

One of the ex-Everton defender's first pieces of business was to sign Vitezslav Jaros on loan from Liverpool, with the Czech joining Kelleher, Harvey Davies (loaned to Crawley Town), Jakub Ojrzynski, Reece Trueman and Jacob Poytress (all released) in leaving the club this summer.

As those six all head for the exit door, three goalkeepers are arriving at Liverpool in the shape of Giorgi Mamardashvili, Freddie Woodman and Armin Pecsi. Woodman has been signed as third-choice to keep the homegrown quota up, Hungarian Pecsi is one for the future, but Mamardashvili is very much one for now.

Which brings us back to Alisson. the Brazilian has suffered with injury issues in the past couple of seasons, a major factor in Kelleher making 46 appearances in the last two campaigns, and something that will make Mamardashvili feel as though he has a chance of a decent amount of game-time in 2025-26.

Outside of that that though, and with one year left on his deal plus Liverpool's option for a second one - an option he recently said he expects the club to trigger, although that isn't clear - Alisson might see the changes happening around him as the beginning of the long goodbye.

Mamardashvili will be snapping at his heels in pre-season, and while there is no doubt who will start the campaign as the Reds' No.1, that is about the only thing that will be staying the same when it comes to Liverpool's goalkeeping.

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