When Liverpool signed Alexis Mac Allister during the summer, it seemed inevitable that he would play as a number eight. That kind of box-to-box role is where he had starred for Argentina at the World Cup and where he felt he was best deployed.
But it has since been a rarity that the 24-year-old has been played there by Jürgen Klopp. In fact, the win over Sheffield United was only his second league start there (the other being against Newcastle United, when Virgil van Dijk was sent off less than half an hour in).
That might partly have been almost by accident, with Liverpool not knowing when Mac Allister was brought in from Brighton that Jordan Henderson and Fabinho would later depart. But it also increasingly looks like it might have been by design.
Liverpool is not expecting to dip into the transfer market for a holding midfield player in January despite missing out on Moisés Caicedo after submitting a monster bid in the summer. Mac Allister and Wataru Endō are the current options, with Stefan Bajčetić also still to return from injury.
Additionally, Klopp has outlined several times why Mac Allister is suited to playing the deepest role since he came in for a fee of $44m (£35m/€41m). “I understand that from the outside world, it’s always about how is the player in this position [or] this position,” Klopp said during a press conference a couple of weeks ago.
But, in the end, it’s all about how the whole team is set up. Is Macca a natural born number six? No. Did football develop in the last year in directions that we could not have imagined before? Yes.
“Does that mean a player like Macca can play the number six? Definitely, but it depends how the whole team defends. Easy as that. If you do that properly, you have an incredible player in the central position, an extra player, who can find passes, who is forward thinking.”
If you enjoyed this piece, you’ll love our Liverpool.com newsletter — once a week, we send exclusive, bonus content only to people signed up to our mailing list!
Our newsletter subscribers get an extra slice of Liverpool.com from one of the best Liverpool FC writers around — straight to your inbox, and completely for free.
Wherever you are in the world — in the US, the UK or further afield — you don’t want to miss out.
While there can be some defensive issues when Liverpool is not performing well as a collective pressing unit, leaving Mac Allister with too much to cover at once, the upsides are also clear. With Mac Allister at the base of its midfield, Liverpool can spring counter-attacks effectively (see Mohamed Salah’s late goal against Everton, for instance) and build up from deep.
With Thiago Alcântara out of contract at the end of the season, Mac Allister has made himself a viable long-term successor, hence why links with André Trindade have cooled. The Argentine can be that player.
There is admittedly a small sample size, but there is also a lack of evidence that Mac Allister works better for Liverpool higher up the field. Against Sheffield United, for instance, he only had 23 touches of the ball and only made one pass into the final third.
Mac Allister’s influence on proceedings, aside from him being stood on or clattered into several times, was very limited at Bramall Lane, whereas normally he is much more involved. There is an argument that with a more progressive number six behind him than Endō, perhaps he would have been found more often, but Mac Allister was unable to find space in a crowded center of the pitch.
The long-term plan appears to still be for Mac Allister to be the holder at Liverpool, leaving Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones and co to the more advanced positions. Already on a number of occasions now, both positive and negative, we have seen why.
