Report: World Cup manager decides he’s starting 30-year-old Liverpool player tomorrow, Man City star benched

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Liverpool fans got a glimpse of another of their players at the World Cup last night when Ibrahima Konate started for France.

After Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold were unused substitutes for England, only Virgil van Dijk had played at that point.

A report from The Athletic suggests that another Liverpool star is set to start for his national team tomorrow.

It was a real show of confidence from Didier Deschamps to give Konate the nod against Australia.

He was selected over Arsenal’s William Saliba who has been one of the in-form players in the Premier League.

Van Dijk is arguably the Netherlands most important player, and expertly lead the side from the back in their victory over Senegal.

There’s been plenty of debate over who would start at right-back for England and Kieran Trippier eventually edged out Alexander-Arnold.

However, the Athletic now report that goalkeeper Alisson Becker is set to start for Brazil and has been chosen over Ederson tomorrow.

Brazil arguably have the strongest pair of goalkeepers in the competitions this year.

Tite has two Champions League level stoppers to choose from, but has opted to stick with Alisson in goal.

Alisson chosen over Ederson for Brazil

Despite Liverpool’s questionable defending this season, Alisson has been magnificent in goal.

Jurgen Klopp singled him out for praise against Brighton last month, despite conceding three goals.

Tite has two goalkeepers with incredible distribution to choose from, but Alisson’s one-one-one shot stopping is unparalleled.

Alisson has a higher save percentage than Ederson in the Premier League this season.

In fact, no goalkeeper in any of Europe’s big five leagues has a better post-shot expected goals vs goals allowed rating than Alisson.

This means that Alisson has made more high quality saves, and prevented more goals than any other keeper in Europe.

Alisson being chosen over Ederson is no surprise given the number of caps he’s won over his compatriot.

The 30-year-old recently went past a half-century of appearances while Ederson has less than 20.

The Selecao take on Serbia tomorrow and the in-form Fulham forward Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Alisson conceded twice to the impressive target man on the opening day of the season.

However, Ederson didn’t have to face him last month as the Serbian had picked up an injury.

Brazil are one of the favourites for the tournament.

With Alisson chosen over Ederson between the sticks and their incredible array of attacking talent, you can understand why.