Alisson: Points record was never Liverpool’s goal and Premier League champions will learn from mistakes

Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson insists that beating Manchester City’s 100-point record was never a “goal” for the Reds, with Jurgen Klopp’s side still revelling in a first title triumph for 30 years.

In an ideal world, their lofty standards, which have sent a number of other records tumbling in 2019-20, would have been maintained through to the end of an elongated campaign.

With a Premier League crown wrapped up, though, focus has started to waver at Anfield. Defeats have been suffered against City and Arsenal, while a previously faultless home record was tarnished in a 1-1 draw with Burnley.

Uncharacteristic errors have crept into Liverpool’s game, with 99 points now the best that they can achieve, but Alisson says nobody in Klopp’s squad was looking beyond ending a long wait for title glory.

The Brazilian goalkeeper told beIN Sports on missing out on another piece of history: “This [the points record] wasn’t a goal for us to be honest, but you start to think ‘we can break a record’ and it’s a good thing but if you don’t break it, it’s ok.

“The most important thing is our goal, we play to be champions, and this is our main goal and we achieved this. Nothing that we are doing now, the small details in a bad way, can take off the shine that we have for being champions.”

Alisson was among those to make a costly mistake in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Arsenal, with Virgil van Dijk also aiding the Gunners’ cause, but Klopp’s side will not be reading too much into their faults and will instead look to remain positive and learn from the rare setbacks they suffer.

“We are human beings. We did amazing things on a football pitch for this club over the past two years,” Alisson added. “We are still human beings. We have the same feelings and emotions as normal people, we are normal people.

“We are ordinary people but we practice sport of a high level and when you are not 100% involved on this and you play against good opponents and they play on their highest level, you are punished for that.

“We have to make the best of this. We have to learn from our mistakes and just keep going, keep playing and giving our best.

“We need to find again our way to play. We started this night in a good way but we didn’t finish in a good way.

“After we scored a goal we dropped a little bit and stopped making the runs we need to do to defend.

“We made mistakes that usually we are there to cover but we weren’t there and we got punished. We suffered with the loss but we are still the champions and still have a good feeling inside.”