The Argentine, who joined Liverpool for £35m from Brighton in the summer, has predominantly been playing at the base of a newly-formed midfield.
But Mac Allister now faces his biggest examination in the number six role against the treble winners and current league leaders Man City at the Etihad Stadium.
Sky Sports pundit Carragher joined the latest podcast episode of Essential Football to assess Mac Allister’s role in the top-of-the-table clash, whether Liverpool have closed the gap to Man City and is asked for his prediction for the match…
Mac Allister faces acid test
He’s a completely different type of player to Fabinho in that role. In that on the ball, he’s going to try and get Liverpool moving, getting them on the ball, receiving the ball with his back to play and flicking around the corner to the opposite full-back and basically, he’s part of the build up that includes the goalkeeper, centre backs really splitting wide and he comes really deep to get on the ball – and that’s certainly a strength of his.
But he’ll certainly be asked questions tomorrow that he hasn’t been asked before in a Liverpool shirt with the quality of Manchester City and the players they have around them and how quickly they can counter attack as well. So, this is going to be the sort of acid test for him in that role.
I still do think Liverpool are still looking for a holding midfield player. They put a bid in for [Moises] Caicedo when [Mac Allister had already been signed] so that tells you, I think, that they’re still looking for somebody in that role. But whether that happens in January or next summer because on the back of pulling out of that transfer, he went and brought [Ryan] Gravenberch, who’s a number eight. So maybe they then thought, ‘Well, okay, we’ll play Mac Allister as the lone six for the rest of the season’, and Liverpool have done really well, but at times you will get caught out defensively.
There’s no doubt about that, because he probably lacks that defensive instinct or pace, really. I think if he was playing in that role alongside someone else, if you were playing like a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-4-2, it’d probably be a little bit more suited. But at times when you play 4-3-3, you can get isolated a little bit, and if you have a lack of pace it can get found out. We’ve just seen that on a few occasions.
But we’ve also seen there’s quality on the ball, and that’ll be very important at Manchester City as well. It can’t be a case of Liverpool just sort of defending and trying to counter-attack. Liverpool have got to be brave on the ball, so Mac Allister will be vitally important to take the ball in difficult situations and get Liverpool to play it.
A lot of games, teams against Liverpool will drop off and Mac Allister will have time on the ball and he can pick his passes. But I think Manchester City will be aggressive, they’ll press because they’re at at home, they’ll try and get on top of Liverpool so I think when he’s receiving the ball, I think it’s vitally important he protects the ball really well but also he’s really aware of what’s around him and he can get his little one touch passes that he likes around the corner and set Liverpool free because it’ll be tough to play out, but we know how both teams will play. Both teams will try and play through the lines. They’ll both press from the front and whoever does that best will come out on top.
