Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has claimed Manchester United counterpart Andre Onana “needs the support of everyone” if he’s to hit top form again.
The Reds welcome their north west rivals to Anfield on Sunday with their seasons on completely different trajectories – Liverpool head into the weekend top of the Premier League table, while United sit sixth and have just been knocked out of Europe.
United’s woeful campaign so far has been underlined by the performances of summer signing Onana, who has made several high-profile errors following his £43.8m move from Inter.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of this weekend’s showdown, Alisson admitted he has sympathy for Onana.
“Onana is a really good goalkeeper,” Alisson said. “The way he performed in the Champions League last season was amazing.
“I went through something similar to what he is living now, coming from an Italian club to England, to a big club, for a lot of money. This is a lot of responsibility over your shoulders and he came here with the responsibility to be the replacement for [David] de Gea, who maybe was not in the best shape of his career but was still delivering. To replace him is a big step in your career.
“He is capable of this responsibility, but sometimes it takes longer with some than others. You are changing team, you are changing leagues, you are trying to adapt and that can affect you a lot. I was lucky in that I was coming to a team that had everything already going in a different way, that was building. I think he will get there. In this moment he needs the support of everybody.”
United head to Anfield looking to avenge last season’s shocking 7-0 loss, but make the trip off the back of successive home losses to Bournemouth and Bayern Munich.
Liverpool took hold of first place in the Premier League standings last week with a late comeback victory at Crystal Palace, while they were able to rest most of their key starters for their final Europa League group stage match on Thursday.
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