Despite a major overhaul of staff at Liverpool in the summer, Alisson is optimistic about the future and has said the players are “committed” to Arne Slot‘s plans.
In a year’s time, Slot’s first two months in charge could be viewed as a false dawn or the start of a bright new era for Liverpool.
Whatever the Dutchman’s legacy ends up being at the club, the players’ anxiety over Jurgen Klopp‘s departure has been eased since Slot’s arrival and Alisson has found working for him “fantastic.”
Speaking in-depth to Joe Hart for BBC Sport, the Reds’ goalkeeper said: “I’m finding [working with Slot] fantastic because we see that he wants to improve the players and doing that, he is improving the team.
“So he is trying to take the best out of everyone, every individual and making us better. We were good before and we were great before at some time, but we get to a point where we needed to have this extra push.
“Arne is bringing to us his new energy. He’s bringing us not only energy but knowledge, his knowledge on football. He is a really smart manager, really smart head coach and he is helping us a lot.”
Liverpool’s seven wins from eight games this season have meant there is plenty of positivity not just among supporters, but within the squad too.
Slot’s approach and early success have bred confidence in the team, as Alisson highlighted.
“You can see from the way we are playing now, I think everybody is seeing that,” Liverpool’s No. 1 added.
“Also, his staff like to work hard and they are showing to us that their way to do things is the best way that [we] can have now.
“So we are committed to that, we are committed to the plan and the plan, we players we are seeing that it is a good plan.
“I’m really happy on the direction that everything is going. We have to keep pushing. We still have a lot of things to improve as a team, as individuals as well, but we are in the right direction.
“It’s early in the season. We have a big gap I think to reach our best, but we are doing well so far and we will keep working on the things that we can improve.”
While there is improvement still needed from Liverpool if they are to remain consistent this season and challenge for major honours, Slot doesn’t have to transform the team’s fortunes.
Unusually for coaches, he has inherited a squad with a strong mentality, a good leadership group and the right mindset.
For the players this has been a case of tweaking rather than transforming.
Alisson continued: “When we changed, not everything was going wrong. When everything is going wrong, you just change and you forget the past and you go to the new.
“But the challenge for us [is] taking the good things, keeping the good things, passing these good things to the staff and the players who are coming in that we had here already and embracing the good stuff that the new staff are bringing to us as well.”
Up next for Liverpool is a home match against Bologna, a Champions League game they are expected to win.
It is perhaps challenges like these, though, as we saw against Nottingham Forest, that Liverpool may find toughest to master as they seek to win consistently with minimum fuss.
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