How Alisson and Liverpool goalkeeping coach and made Riyad Mahrez miss late penalty at Anfield

The Algerian squandered a late opportunity to claim all three points for City last weekend when he blazed his spot kick over the top
Liverpool goalkeeping coach John Achterberg has opened up on his part in Riyad Mahrez’s penalty miss at Anfield last week.

The Algerian squandered a late opportunity to claim all three points for Manchester City when he blazed his spot kick over the top.

mahrez reaction after penalty missed

Jamie Carragher spotted the role Achterberg played as he gave instructions to Liverpool stopper Alisson from the touchline, reports the Liverpool Echo.

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Mahrez ultimately missed, prompting Achterberg to celebrate wildly and Jurgen Klopp to quickly congratulate his colleague after his own trademark fist pump.

And the Dutchman has revealed the advice to Alisson was no accident – especially given City’s regular penalty taker, Sergio Aguero, had been substituted.
“We have our talks before every game and obviously if anything changes on the pitch then we have a little bit of contact with each other because the penalty taker changed because the main one Aguero wasn’t on the pitch,” said Achterberg.
“We had to look at who was going to take it and get the information through about what we thought was going to happen. That’s what we tried to do.”

Liverpool goalkeeping coach Achterberg turning his back to Alisson before pointing to his top right, correctly predicting where Mahrez would attempt to put his penalty. Just shows the level of analysis that goes into every match. 🤯 #LIVMCI pic.twitter.com/Le3oIQTy11

— Di Stru ⚽ (@Di_Stru) October 7, 2018

Asked exactly how the information was discovered, Achterberg – speaking on Premier League today – responded: “That would be the secret of how we work!
“We have an analysing department, we were talking to Alisson and Simon (Mignolet) and the other goalies what they think, and we decide.”