It came out today that Liverpool and Brazil goalkeeper Alisson could be injured until the end of the European season. This is terrible news for Brazil, who are already not in a good defensive moment. And that is a priority for Ancelotti.
Without Alisson, or even with him not being at 100% for the World Cup, Brazil are left with goalkeeping options that inspire no confidence at all.
The plan was clear: Brazil’s best goalkeeper is Alisson. Without him, Ancelotti will have to trust options that are simply not reliable. Of those already called up, you have Ederson and Bento.
Starting with Bento: he is not reliable. I follow Al Nassr and I am not even going to talk about months ago, when he was on the bench behind Nawaf and was even close to being loaned out. He only became the starter because Nawaf made a childish mistake. Even so, he does not inspire confidence. He is weak with his feet and, although he has good moments as a shot-stopper, he does not have the level to give 100% security.
Ederson was once a great goalkeeper, no doubt. But today he is no longer the same. I do not follow him closely at club level right now, but with the national team he has never really inspired confidence. And what is most worrying is that even the thing he used to be best at, his footwork, has not been good. Against France he even failed at that and still conceded two chipped goals. So neither of the two gives any real security to the average fan.
If Alisson goes, those are the three. If he does not, then one spot opens up. And that is where a good debate begins: Hugo Souza or Fábio.
Fábio is 45 years old and is still making great saves, which is absurd. But in my opinion, if Alisson does not go, Hugo Souza should be called up. Not so much because of his consistency in a normal match, but because of the surprise factor: he is very strong at saving penalties and that can make all the difference in a World Cup.
Alisson is a great goalkeeper, but let’s not exaggerate what he has done for the national team either. He is the best option, without question. But he is not a Donnarumma-for-Italy type of case in terms of impact on the national team.
Conclusion
If Alisson does not go to the World Cup, Brazil have a serious problem and will have to choose the least bad option, which in theory is Ederson.
For me, without Alisson, the squad should be: Ederson, Bento and Hugo Souza, mainly because of the penalty factor, which the other two simply do not have.