Liverpool seem to have regained their form of late but as the Reds continue to chase Manchester City, fans are understandably concerned by rumours surrounding the availability of Alisson Becker.
The Brazilian goalkeeper has helped Jurgen Klopp's defence given the absence of Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, but social media speculation is circulating on whether he may miss tonight's clash against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Supporters clearly recognise the importance of Alisson, with his goalkeeping ability able to be captured using the underlying numbers beneath the surface.
Expected Goals (xG) offers an insight into the likelihood of a effort being scored by considering aspects such as shot location and body part used to take the shot.
And xG tends to provide an accurate summary of whether a team deserved fewer or more goals based on their attempts.
Post-shot xG focuses on shots that hit the target and takes into account the quality and trajectory of the shot, which is why it can be applied to goalkeepers and shot-stopping in terms of whether a player is saving above or below the average rate.
According to the metric, Alisson should have conceded roughly 18.3 goals in the Premier League this season, but he's actually shipped just 15.
That means the South American has overperformed by 3.3 goals; the average keeper would have shipped 18 goals based on the same shots faced, but Alisson conceded only 15.
Overperformance has been a consistent theme throughout his career, as based on the past four league campaigns for Liverpool and AS Roma, post-shot xG suggests that the average goalkeeper would have conceded 19.6 more goals than Alisson has.
For perspective, over that same four-year period, David De Gea has overperformed his numbers by 11.1 goals while Jordan Pickford has underperformed by 3.6 goals.
That essentially means that Alisson has proved he's an above-average keeper, while Pickford has saved to a below-average standard.
Alisson's best season - interestingly - came in the year before he moved to Anfield, having overperformed in Serie A by a remarkable 10.9 goals in 2017/18.
Given the interest in data analysis at Anfield, it is highly likely that Liverpool's recruitment department had an awareness of how Alisson's numbers compared to the typical man between the sticks, hence a bid was eventually made.
Without Alisson, Liverpool lose their ability to prevent goals from being conceded to an above-average standard.
Caoimhin Kelleher would be the man to replace the Brazilian international in the starting eleven, but as a result of the few minutes he's played at first-team level, it is unclear whether the youngster is an above or below average shot-stopper just yet.
The 22 year-old has performed impressively whenever he's been called upon, but Alisson's elite level simply cannot be matched and Klopp will hope to field his primary no.1 on Wednesday evening.
