By James Cond
The date is Sunday 27th April 2025, and Alexis Mac Allister has just unleashed a thunderbolt into the back of the Anfield net, the first goal in a 5-1 victory over Spurs that clinched league title number twenty for The Reds. That goal would go on to receive the club’s Goal of The Season award and top off a superb individual campaign for the Argentine, which also saw him land himself a spot in the PFA Team of The Season.
Fast forward 16 months and Mac Allister's situation couldn't have fallen further from the peaks of 2024/25.
Struggles in Slot's Second Season
After lifting the title the season before, there was an expectation that Liverpool would kick on and they were strong favourites to finish top again. Instead, the campaign would ultimately end in disappointment. Mac Allister wasn't the only player to experience a decline, yet his was perhaps the most notable of all. His energy and athleticism that the fans had become accustomed to in the middle of the park seemed to have disappeared, not helped by the vast gaps left in transition by a team lacking sharpness.
Mac Allister regularly found himself isolated when Liverpool lost the ball high up the pitch and struggled physically to make up ground, leading to a notable drop-off in his defensive stats. Between the 23/24 and 25/26 campaigns, his tackles per game plummeted from 3.0 to 1.4, and his balls recovered fell from an average of 5.9 to 3.0. There is, without doubt, a systematic issue that we can read into these numbers, linked to the role in which he was utilised under Arne Slot. His position was once that of the tenacious, box-to-box midfielder that we saw at Brighton before signing for The Reds, as well as under Jurgen Klopp, who openly admitted that he preferred playing Mac Allister in more advanced roles in 2024. However, the tactical tweaks of Slot, and his preferred formation of 4-2-3-1, saw Mac Allister, for the most part, dropping back into a holding role alongside Ryan Gravenberch. There's no doubt that this was still a role that he thrived in across his excellent 24/25 campaign, but injury issues and physical burnout last season led to a struggle to anchor the midfield effectively.
Fitness Concerns Across the Campaign
Between the start of the 2022/23 season and the end of the 24/25 campaign, Mac Allister racked up 13,211 minutes for club and country, averaging around 4,403 minutes per season. A large factor in the vast number of appearances was down to Argentina's success, with the 27-year-old a key figure across both their Copa America and World Cup triumphs. As a result, he encountered a disrupted pre-season ahead of the last domestic campaign, in which he didn't feature in any of Liverpool's friendlies, or for that matter any of Argentina's World Cup qualifiers as he was given additional time off to recover. The effects of an immense physical output continued, as it took the midfielder until late November to register three consecutive 90 minute appearances -- the first time since April earlier that year.
It's no secret that Liverpool had their fair share of injury issues over the 25/26 season, but a lack of depth in midfield areas, partly caused by absentees, meant that players such as Mac Allister missed out on opportunities for rest that may have been required. Wataru Endo missed large parts of the season with a foot injury while prospect Stefan Bajcetic was unavailable for the whole campaign, with Harvey Elliot leaving on loan and Arne Slot reluctant to give minutes to young Trey Nyoni. This increased pressure on the midfield starters, with Mac Allister a regular on the team sheet, in spite of fitness concerns.
This year's World Cup has provided little breathing space, with Liverpool's number 10 starting 7 out of 8 of Argentina's matches during their run to the World Cup final across June and July. Mac Allister ranked second highest for minutes of any outfield player at the entire tournament, playing the entirety of six games, with the only exception being the 120 minutes that he played in the 1-0 defeat against Spain. After not featuring in any of Liverpool's pre-season matches, and with little to no rest over the summer, many fans have been left wondering whether the Argentine has still got the energy to nail down a starting spot under Liverpool's new manager.
Back to Work Under the New Boss
At the time of writing, Alexis Mac Allister has just fired Liverpool to victory against Atletico Madrid and Tottenham, in displays where he seemed much closer to the level of performance that we had come to expect two seasons ago. The Reds are now three games into their league campaign and new boss Andoni Iraola's style and tactics are in full flow. Fans are already beginning to see changes in the setup of the team, in spite of the fact that the new manager likes to play a 4-2-3-1 just as his predecessor did. The difference here comes in the approach, with Iraola favouring a pressing-based system that attacks space rapidly from turnovers, in contrast to Slot's preferred possession-based style. Last season, Iraola's Bournemouth side had the most ball recoveries and the second most interceptions in the entire division, a clear example of the nature of press that Liverpool fans can come to expect under the new man in charge. The shift into perfecting this new system will no doubt take time, and a certain emphasis lies on Mac Allister and his midfield counterparts to become more front-footed in order to create opportunities in the final third. This is a role that he will no doubt relish, allowing him to demonstrate the box-to-box dynamism that we know that he can do so well.
Over the past few weeks, Mac Allister has publicly voiced his frustration about not receiving a contract extension, leading to speculation about whether the Reds will be open to offering a deal if he continues to perform at a high level. Iraola was very vocal about his desire to keep the Argentine at the club amid transfer speculation over the summer, and after a strong World Cup for his country and promising signs at the start of the campaign, could Alexis Mac Allister become a key player for his club once again this season?
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