As the goals rained down on the Manchester United goal back on March 5, few had a better vantage point than Alisson Becker
The Liverpool goalkeeper watching on as the most interested spectator while his team-mates laid waste to David de Gea's goal at the Kop End,
For the all the achievements and success under Jurgen Klopp, is still hard to fathom that Liverpool beat United 7-0, nine months on
It was the biggest win for either side in this age-old fixture, surpassing Liverpool's 7-1 triumph in the 1895-96 Second Division
Some 287 days on from that unforgettable scalping and Alisson and his colleagues are once more preparing to renew hostilities
But what would be the motivation for Alisson if the shoe had been on the other foot this weekend?
Just what frame of mind would one of the world's best goalkeepers enter the most watched club fixture on the planet, if he had been on the other end of such a humiliating result?
Alisson
"I would be on fire, I think,"
"And I would try to set my team-mates on fire as well. I already played against Liverpool and I know how strong this team can be at Anfield.
"I lost that game (for Roma in 2018) and it wasn’t a good experience in terms of the result, but this is the kind of game you want to play in.
"The players from Liverpool FC, from Chelsea, from Manchester United, from Manchester City, they are players that have to enjoy playing in this kind of game. I enjoy it a lot when we play against big opponents.
"As a football player, as an elite athlete, you are going to try to use it to motivate yourself.
"I don’t know much about the Man United players so I don’t know what they are going to do, but I’m sure they are coming here to try and get the result from us.
"We are focused on getting the three points.
"I was worried about not conceding as I always do in every game. You can’t start to think about the results, the amount of goals we scored, only after the game.
"In football you don’t have too much time to think about it because in three days you have another game and if you don’t win then it doesn’t matter if you won 7-0 against your biggest rivals.
"It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the fans to talk about and you feel amazing but we have to deal with these kinds of feelings and focus on the next challenge.
"From our side, that game is in the past.
"It’s a good thing for the supporters to talk about and remember but we have a different team now, we are in a different moment, new players came in, so we have big goals for the season.
"We want to try to do everything to win the game, no matter how big the score."
if the 7-0 shellacking of United was the most unbelievable result during Alisson's time against the Red Devils, it is not the one that is most imbued with meaning and significance.
That came in January 2020 when a long punt towards Mohamed Salah resulted in the Egyptian scoring the goal that had the Kop finally believing that a painful 30-year wait for league title No.19 was finally coming to an end.
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