Roma president James Pallotta has conveniently decided to talk about Liverpool’s interest in Alisson, just days before his side’s Champions League clash with us.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds host Roma at Anfield tonight in the first-leg of a mouthwatering semi-final.
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We’ve been linked to their world-class Brazilian keeper all season, but Pallotta’s timing seems to us like a clear effort to upset Loris Karius, who’s been largely exceptional since becoming our first-choice stopper – bar a slightly poor show on Saturday at West Brom.
“I am not going to sell him,” Pallotta told Sky, cited by Football365.
“Liverpool want to sign him and we are on very good terms with him.
“I am sure we will receive some huge offers this summer.
“We don’t want to sell him but the decision must also be taken by Monchi and the manager. We want to build the future of Roma around him.
“We had no choice when we sold Salah and Pjanic.
“If they had told me they wanted to stay we could have talked and find a solution but Salah wanted to prove himself in the Premier League.
“We have some issues with the Financial Fair play but we think everything will be sorted soon.”
We’re backing Karius to bounce back, though, and ignore these comments.
The German does have the backing of Klopp and our information actually tells us we’re not keen on Alisson anymore, but a much cheaper keeper to replace Simon Mignolet instead.
Since winning a spot in the side, Karius has racked up plenty of clean-sheets and made some superb saves, too.
We’re putting his mistakes against West Brom down to having a makeshift defence in front of him, which included Joe Gomez, Alberto Moreno and Ragnar Klavan.
None of this trio will start tonight.