Liverpool transfer plan could change as Klopp extends Mac Allister audition

Alexis Mac Allister has spent the majority of his Liverpool career to date as a holding midfielder with Jurgen Klopp hinting that might not change anytime soon

Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest at Anfield

Alexis Mac Allister has always only felt like a short-term answer as Liverpool’s holding midfielder.

Signed from Brighton & Hove Albion in a £35m deal last summer, the Argentine was initially fielded in his favoured advanced midfield position during pre-season. It was only after Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones had been tried at number six, after the Reds had sold Fabinho and Jordan Henderson following unexpected interest from Saudi Arabia, that Jurgen Klopp turned to his summer signing.

First lining up deeper in Liverpool’s final pre-season friendly against SV Darmstadt, he retained the position away at Chelsea for the opening game of the Premier League season. But with the Reds bidding for both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia at the time, the 24-year-old was seemingly only ever seen as a stop-gap in that role.

Ultimately, missing out on both holding midfielders to Chelsea, Liverpool responded by surprisingly signing Wataru Endo from VfB Stuttgart in a £16.2m deal in mid-August. After a debut off the bench against AFC Bournemouth, the 30-year-old started at number six away at Newcastle United on August 27th with Mac Allister deployed further forward as a result.

Yet, with Endo slowly adapting to English football and youngster Stefan Bajcetic suffering an injury setback, that trip to St. James’ Park remains the only match the Argentine has started for the Reds where he hasn’t been stationed in defensive midfield so far this season.

The jury remains out on such a selection, with Mac Allister not always convincing in that deeper role. Yet now also playing it for Argentina, the World Cup winner has previously insisted he is enjoying his change of position.

“I like it. I’ve said it many times, for me it’s easy to say ‘It’s not my position and I do the best I can’, but it’s not like that,” he told LFC TV after a 2-2 draw away at former club Brighton.

“Jurgen is playing me there, is giving me his support and I try to do the best I can. I think I improved a lot in the last couple of years, defensively, and I think it’s a job I can do well.

“So I feel good, I feel that my team-mates and the coaching staff are supporting me. That’s the most important thing.”

That match against Brighton proved to be particularly tricky for Mac Allister, with the midfielder caught out in possession for Simon Adringa’s opener. Following on from a poor post-international showing against Wolves in September, which saw him withdrawn at half-time, his displays have been scrutinised in greater detail ever since.

Yet three weeks on from his Brighton return, he put in arguably his strongest performance further back in Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.

It was his tackle on Murillo midway inside the Reds half that broke a Forest attack in its tracks and led to the opening goal, with the Argentine then carrying the ball forward and playing in Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian in turn fed Darwin Nunez, with Diogo Jota on hand to slot home the rebound after the Uruguayan’s initial strike was saved.

Only Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate bettered his total of 107 touches and 85 attempted passes against Forest, with Kostas Tsimikas (four) the only Liverpool player to win more tackles than the Argentine (two).

He’d also register one shot, one key pass, complete his one attempted dribble, win two aerial battles (one offensive and one defensive), and complete one clearance and one interception to showcase his all-round contributions even in a deeper role.

The week before Forest, his through-ball from the edge of his own area launched another counter-attack and unleashed Nunez, with the striker then picking out Salah to wrap up a 2-0 victory over Everton. Meanwhile, he’d register an assist himself for the Uruguayan with a fine lofted pass against West Ham in September, highlighting how is still capable of contributing offensively in a naturally defensive position.

Klopp is certainly seeing enough from Mac Allister further back to continue with the experiment, with the German suggesting the method in their madness is starting to become increasingly clear despite outside doubts.

“It is obviously not really a discussion we have, otherwise we wouldn’t play him there, obviously,” he told reporters after beating Forest. “I think today everybody could see the benefit of a player who comes rather from the offensive side of the game than from the other side.

“In a game where you have to create things, where you have to pass, where you have to switch sides. That’s how it is then.

“Not all the balls reach the target, but if you try something in tight spaces, that’s completely normal. I have no problem at all with losing balls around the box because that’s where we should be then for counter-press.

“I’m really pleased for him. And a lot of top defensive moments. Really built the counter, stuff like this. Was really there.

“He’s good at these things, that’s why we play him there. In one vs one situations, really good. We have to make sure, as a team, that the spaces are really small in these moments. And we can do that with the eights, with the wingers, and the central striker as well.

“And we can do that with the centre-halves pushing into midfield in these moments. And then we have just a really creative player in the centre of the park, together with Trent in some moments obviously, which is helpful. Very helpful.”

A square peg in a round hole Mac Allister might be, but he is still doing the job to a satisfactory level. And while Liverpool might still look to bring in another defensive midfielder, as speculation linking them with Fluminense’s Andre Trindade continues, Klopp’s comments would suggest that an initial short-term solution could become a more long-term possibility.

It wouldn’t be the first time the German has transformed a midfield’s position, of course. Jordan Henderson was repurposed from box-to-box number eight to a deeper number six, before later being let off the leash further forward once more, while Gini Wijnaldum was also utilised further back having predominantly been an attacking midfielder prior to moving to Anfield.

Adam Lallana enjoyed a similar re-positioning to Wijnaldum under Klopp, while Harvey Elliott has been switched from a right-winger to a number eight. Cast the net out wider and you also have James Milner being utilised as a makeshift full-back, and Roberto Firmino and Cody Gakpo both transformed into false nines.

Admittedly, the fact that Liverpool were willing to spend a club-record £111m on Caicedo in the summer suggested that Klopp never intended to make Mac Allister a number six. But needs must and things change.

A comfortable home win over Nottingham Forest is the exact platform where such a utilisation can and will be successful. But whether the same can be said about facing Man City at the Etihad is a different story entirely, with such a test lurking around the corner for Mac Allister and the Reds after the November international break.

Had Liverpool signed a world class holding midfielder in the summer, onlookers would laud their engine room as one of the very best in the Premier League and have no doubt about their status as title contenders. Instead, they remain a very good side coming out of transition, arguably still missing one piece of the puzzle.

Yet you can no longer say with any certainty that they might not already possess the answer.

Scrutiny around Mac Allister’s performances will inevitably continue, with it still to be seen if Endo will later inherit the holding position at some point this season or if a new defensive midfielder will be targeted in January. Regardless, the World Cup winner has ensured he will remain an option.

Should he line up there against Man City on November 25, and come through such a test successfully, he will have re-written the Reds narrative and proven his manager’s questioned faith in him right. Consequently, Kopites might never get to see the 24-year-old unleashed further forward, gifted an unexpected number six rather than World Cup-winning number eight, with their next midfield transfer perhaps proving decisive to the 24-year-old’s future positioning.

Whether you are a fan of Mac Allister playing deeper or want to see him further forward matters not. Klopp’s hand might have been forced when transforming the midfielder, but such a decision has at least ensured that the Argentine is now far more than just a stop-gap, as Liverpool bosses start to weigh up their next moves as the January transfer window slowly starts to come into sight.