It’s remarkable to think that Alisson could receive a consecutive Premier League Golden Glove award this season despite missing nine games due to injury.
The Brazilian has 12 goals conceded from 23 league games and is thus only one behind the current leader Nick Pope. Six games of the season are still pending as he will only be the fourth multiple winner of the award.
The 27-year-old, who is English, European champion and world champion in Anfield, has firmly established his status as the best goalkeeper in the world in his two years at Merseyside and has blurred yesterday’s goalkeeper problems far away.
David James, Sander Westerveld, Jerzy Dudek, Simon Mignolet and Loris Karius, who had a problematic position in the Premier League era, have all seen repeated mistakes that have cost them their star role.
The only exception is Pepe Reina.
And if you look at the Spaniard’s career, you can’t help but have a little pity for the shot stopper, which he does not appreciate as much as he deserves, because he would easily have any Alisson performance with the club in Can bring together.
This weekend has been 15 years since he moved from Villarreal to Liverpool with a £ 6m transfer. He could return to Anfield if the Reds face Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Prior to Alisson’s arrival at Merseyside, Reina Liverpool was the undisputed best goalkeeper in the Premier League era.
With impressive 394 appearances at Anfield in nine years, he won the Golden Gloves Award in each of his first three seasons and broke the club record for successive goals in his first season in England.
He overcame individual mistakes in the 2006 FA Cup final and was the hero of the Reds’ penalty shootout win over West Ham United. During his time in Anfield, he was also European Super Cup, Community Shield and League Cup winner.
But while Alisson is a triple champion and already a club legend, despite his longevity in Anfield, Reina has probably become scarce.
The Reds lost in their first season in the FIFA Club World Cup final against Sao Paulo, although he was the hero in the 2007 Champions League semi-final against Chelsea to send the Reds to the Spaniard’s Athens final could not prevent them his team lost to AC Milan.
In the meantime, he was a star when Liverpool narrowly missed the Premier League title in 2008/09 before Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s catastrophic Red ownership ended the chance of further success for Reina.
A loss of form after Rafael Benitez’s departure in 2010 did not help his legacy, while the vocal desire to return to Barcelona before being pushed out of the front door by Brendan Rodgers also affected relationships.
After failing to return to Camp Nou in 2013, he was loaned to Napoli as Liverpool, in his absence, narrowly missed the Premier League title before signing for Bayern Munich the following year as his career as a red despite a whimper ended up promising so much more.
But Reina’s career was one that promised more than he ultimately delivered, despite representing some of the continent’s greatest names.
When he broke with Victor Valdes on the eve of the modern dominance of the Catalan giants in Barcelona, he was the club’s first choice goalkeeper at the beginning of the millennium before losing the shirt to his compatriot.
At Bayern Munich he was unable to take over Manuel Neuer. At AC Milan, he could not overthrow Gianluigi Donnarumma.
And while he was the first choice for Napoli, the Neapolitans always stayed just behind Juventus during Reina’s time in the club.
On the international stage, he was a member of the famous Spanish team that won the World Cup and two European Championships, but with Iker Casillas, the established number one, little more than a glorified cheerleader.
The 37-year-old Spaniard has indicated that he could retire at Aston Villa after the end of the season on loan and is in an unfamiliar position fighting the relegation threat to the struggling Villans.
Before the Premier League suspension, Reina had been looking forward to returning to Anfield with his temporary club, hoping for a warm return after his exit from the back door had given him an appropriate farewell.
But since the restart of football, he’s been pecking behind Orjan Nyland, while thanks to Covid-19 he’s been denied the reception of the hero he deserves because the games take place behind closed doors.
Reina will be able to look back proudly if he ever puts his gloves on, but his career was certainly curious.
They are popular with fans and teammates alike and you won’t find a colleague who speaks badly of him.
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But when he was the first choice, the biggest prizes escaped him. When he claimed success, he watched from the bank.
Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. He’s not the Liverpool legend he should be, and falls behind Ray Clemence, Bruce Grobbelaar and now Alisson.
Pepe Reina has always been the right goalkeeper. But unfortunately it was almost always at the wrong time for him.
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