Manchester United and Liverpool face off at Old Trafford in the Premier League this weekend as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer‘s men look to boost their top-four hopes and in the process, derail the title hopes of their fierce rivals under Jurgen Klopp.
The match is scheduled to take place at 2:05pm on Sunday afternoon and will be broadcast live by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom. Earlier on this season in the reverse fixture, the Reds were inspired by Sadio Mane and a double from Xherdan Shaqiri to romp to a 3-1 victory at Anfield.
Whilst much of the pre-match focus this time around will be on the two teams’ attacking arsenal, especially after the hosts blew away Chelsea in the Emirates FA Cup on Monday, today we’re going to hone in on defence and more specifically, the two goalkeepers.
In three days’ time, the man considered to be the best goalkeeper in the English top-flight and in the world will be going up against world football’s most expensive goalkeeper, United’s David de Gea vs Liverpool’s Alisson. Let’s compare them to see who’s performed better in the league this season.
Statistical comparison
Our comparison is going to be a statistical one between the two goalkeepers using the below image courtesy of whoscored.com. In the graphic is their overall stats in the PL in 2018/2019 thus far.
As we can see, things start off very evenly in the comparison as the two players two years apart have played exactly the same amount of games and number of minutes, having not missed any Premier League football for their clubs this term.
Alisson, signed from Roma last summer, wins our first stat as he has zero yellow cards next to his name to de Gea’s one and also a better pass success percentage. Meanwhile, the Red Devil has been crowned Man of the Match in one league game this season, something Alisson, who takes the final stat with a better average WhoScored match rating and the aerial duels won figure, hasn’t managed to do in 2018/2019.
As ‘keepers, neither are likely to have scored, assisted, picked up a red card or registered a shot, hence their scores of zero for these stats.
Summary
When we add up the scores of our comparison with one point being awarded to each shot-stopper for winning an individual stat, in conclusion, Alisson is the resounding 1-4 winner.
One could argue that this is down to the Brazil man having the better defence in front of him, but still, is impressive in his first PL season. And it could well come down to which goalkeeper is in the better form when separating Manchester and Liverpool on Sunday.
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