Alexis Mac Allister has quickly filled the void in midfield left by Curtis Jones. The World Cup winner now divides opinion with people wondering what he does.
It is a bit of a tradition for the Liverpool midfield to possess one of these players.
One player in the trio will sacrifice parts of their game for the team and instead of focusing on that, people focus on what they aren’t doing.
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Mac Allister is no longer anchoring the midfield and he’s not been involved or goals. So what is he doing?
The same question was asked of Dominik Szoboszlai last season.
The former RB Leipzig attacker restricted his on-ball work and was instead doing a lot of work for the Reds out of possession. Initially, he was lauded for it and then, because he wasn’t contributing goals or assists, fans started to get a little frustrated with the Liverpool No8.
Liverpool midfielders not judged fairly
We’ve seen similar things happen with Gini Wijnaldam, Curtis Jones, Naby Keita and even Thiago Alcantara in the past.
People believe players should be doing certain things, even if they have a completely different role within the team, and when they aren’t, they’re judged unfairly.
Wijnaldum’s role for Liverpool was completely different to his one for The Netherlands yet people still seemed perplexed when the versatile midfielder didn’t impact the final third for the Reds like he did on international duty. They seemed to overlook, maybe even ignore the fact he was playing for the team rather than himself.
Keita risk removed from his game
In Ian Graham’s book, he essentially says Keita wasn’t able to replicate his RB Leipzig form at Anfield because Jurgen Klopp had his midfielders doing a different job.
You could see it in the data too, yet people just didn’t care enough to add context to the situation. The risk had largely been removed from his game.
The issue there is the risk is what made him one of the best midfielders in Europe during his time in Germany.
It made sense though.
Football – 2022 / 2023 Emirates FA Cup – Round Three – Replay – Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Liverpool – Molineux – Tuesday 17th January 2023. Naby Keita of Liverpool PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxUK
He can’t be playing risky passes when the entire system is shaped around ensuring the likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold can play those passes without the team being exposed.
Mac Allister: From dictator to facilitator
This is the norm for the Liverpool midfield. At least one of the starting three has to curb their instincts for the balance of the team.
Last season, Mac Allister was given a deeper role in the midfield. It allowed him to see a lot of the ball.
Personally, I liked him. I liked him having 80+ touches and 60+ passes on a per-90 basis. I thought it made the most of his strengths in possession. Some disagreed. Some wanted him higher up the pitch.
In doing so, though, you turn him into a facilitator rather than a dictator.
He plays as someone who retains possession for Argentina and he played a similar position for Brighton at various stages, but I always felt he was better suited to seeing more of the ball.
Some players suit the less is more role. I’m not sure Mac Allister is one of those players though.
Mac Allister’s less than encouraging numbers
Against Ipswich, playing on the left of a midfield three, the Liverpool No10 attempted 49 passes and had an 86% success rate. He finished the game having created zero chances. The 25-year-old had two shots with an xG total of 0.1. Mac Allister didn’t attempt a single tackle, per FotMob, and won just three of his 11 ground duels.
At a glance, these aren’t encouraging numbers, are they?
He wasn’t really a goal threat, he didn’t create a single chance and he struggled to win any of his defensive duels. By comparison, Szoboszlai had three shots, he carved out three chances, and he finished with an xG+xA total of 0.4 all while winning three of his five ground duels.
Mac Allister was seeing more of the ball on the left. He didn’t see much of it centrally. I watched the game back and noticed he was making a lot of runs down the touchline. He was occupying the left-back position at times to pick up possession and he was filling in space on the left to allow Luis Diaz to invert. He was a facilitator.
Is Arne Slot wasting Mac Allister?
And I thought he was absolutely fine against Ipswich. Ideally, he would’ve won more duels and we wouldn’t be asking him to do so much out-of-possession running but Slot clearly feels he can play that role better than others within the squad.
Against Brentford, it was a little different. Mac Allister had 66 touches, attempted 50 passes and had an 88% success rate. But he also carved out two chances. He also won seven of 13 duels. His on-ball stuff was really similar to what he posted against Ipswich but he was just more efficient – creating more chances and winning more duels.
There’s still a debate as to whether he’s being wasted though and it’ll rage on for the foreseeable.
Mac Allister new role will split opinion
I’m surprised Slot didn’t give Curtis Jones an opportunity in that role against Ipswich given he played a similar one under Jurgen Klopp.
Curtis Jones
The difference, however, might be Mac Allister’s eagerness to progress play. He’ll pass forward a lot of the time whereas Jones will retain the ball. But I’m not entirely sure what people expected from Mac Allister in this role.
The right-sided midfielder/attacking midfielder was always going to be more influential in terms of output while the deeper midfielder was the controller – the link between defence and attack.
So the Argentine was always going to be a retainer. The man tasked with facilitating for others. I can see this sort of showing being the norm for Mac Allister in this new system.
Some will appreciate it, others will hate it. It is part and parcel of playing in a Liverpool midfield, I think. There will always be one who sacrifices key parts of their game for the good of the team and their role will be misunderstood. Now it is Mac Allister’s turn.
