Interview'Something we can be proud of' - Alisson on reaching 100 clean sheets for Liverpool
The goalkeeper produced his century by keeping out Brentford at Anfield on Saturday evening in a 1-0 victory that was decided by Mohamed Salah's first-half goal.
After the game, Alisson expressed his satisfaction at producing three figures for shutouts but was quick to point out how it was achieved by a collective effort throughout the entire set-up.
Read on for the Brazilian's post-match thoughts, including more reflections on the win over the Bees and the Reds' next outing, as he spoke to Liverpoolfc.com...
Liverpool 1-0 Brentford: Highlights
Ali, what were your thoughts on the game?
It was really good. I think it was a game we can be proud of. We can see this game as a mark for us, [with] our defensive work and everybody working together, fighting for first and second balls – not only the line of four but the midfielders, the strikers, everybody working together. I think that makes the team keep the clean sheet and scoring the goal that was enough to get the three points.
It was your 100th clean sheet for Liverpool – that must be a really satisfying milestone for you to hit...
It is, for sure. I don't know how much it means, 100, I hope I'm going to reach 200, 300, as many as possible. But this is not only a number of myself, it's from all the boys, from all the staff, goalkeeping coach department, everybody. We work together with a common goal and a clean sheet is a common goal of ourselves. Clean sheets can put us in a closer situation to win games. This game was a good example of that, the last match as well – 1-0. We can take that for all the tournament – 1-0 is all we need. I'm really happy about that and it's something we can be proud of.
You're on a six-game winning run, so how satisfying is it to see that consistency show and all that hard work is translating on the pitch?
It's really good. Mainly because of the problems we had this season, I think when you achieve your targets it's really satisfying. The numbers we have now at the end of the season is something that we can be proud of. We were here I think two, three months ago, speaking that we were going to arrive at this point. Sometimes things take time to happen, as in life. You have to work hard, keep working hard and try to get better. We are doing that. But at the same time, we cannot be fully satisfied because we know the quality of our team and the things that we are capable of. So, we have to take the best of every player and keep improving.
It's been a really busy period and now you've got just over a week on the training pitch to prepare for Leicester City. That'll be another big challenge...
It will. The Premier League is always tough to play. You think, 'OK, teams at the end of the season, they don't fight for nothing, they are not going to give their everything.' But then you find teams who are fighting against relegation, you have teams that are fighting for European competitions, there are teams who play really well and they just enjoy the game and give their everything every match. It's so good to be part of this competition, I'm so glad of that and I really think that we are going to find a really strong Leicester side because they are fighting for their lives – and we are fighting as well – so we have to be well prepared for that. A week is really good for us to do that.