How Alexis Mac Allister – the ‘rhythm-giver’ – became a Liverpool VIP

There are few surer things in football right now than Alexis Mac Allister lighting up the heart of Liverpool’s midfield.

For a long time, Liverpool’s group of VIPs (very important players) was an exclusive collective comprised of Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, but Mac Allister has now forced entry into it.

Due to the overhaul in midfield last summer, a key component of Jurgen Klopp’s new spine was unknown. Dominik Szoboszlai took the early lead with his scintillating start to the season but, as the campaign has worn on, Mac Allister has overtaken him.

Among the chaos, he is the calm. The player who can take an extra touch, and has one second more than anybody else. He is dictating the tempo of matches — and from a variety of positions.

As a No 6 earlier in the season and now as a No 8 — the role he was purchased for in the summer from Brighton & Hove Albion — Mac Allister not only deserves to be in Liverpool’s player of the season conversation but the Premier League’s too.

“Alexis is exactly the player I hoped he would be: super-influential, super-smart, great guy — loves playing for Liverpool as well, which is really important,” Jurgen Klopp said recently.

“He’s a rhythm-giver, a difference-maker, he can control moments of the game. Always there, always involved; nothing is too much for him. He’s really a top, top, top player. But we had that sense when we signed him and he fulfilled all our expectations… and more.”

The 25-year-old’s quality was hardly unknown — he won the World Cup in 2022, after all — but how exactly has he become Klopp’s complete midfielder?

Aggression

Mac Allister does not possess the characteristics usually associated with a defensive midfielder. If asked to label his best attributes, the focus would be on him in possession rather than out of it. You would be forgiven for assuming he was a clever No 10.

What he lacks in height and physicality, he makes up for with his anticipation and aggression. Using the true-tackles metric — a combination of tackles won, tackles lost, and fouls committed while attempting a tackle — we can gauge how often a player “sticks a foot in”.

Per 1,000 opposition touches, only Fulham’s Joao Palhinha, a reported Liverpool target last summer, has attempted to win the ball more often than Mac Allister this season.

It points to his defensive intensity and desire to limit the opponent’s time on the ball — a key component of Klopp’s counter-pressing system.

He is also the midfielder with the highest true-interceptions rate (with 5.9 interceptions and blocked passes per 1,000 opposition touches). So, again, he is very front-footed and proactive in defence.

Only five players have made more than his 17 tackles and interceptions in the attacking third, showing his value to the forward press when he pushes on.

Shooting

During pre-season, Mac Allister played in a right-sided No 8 role, but the sales of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, injuries to Thiago and Stefan Bajcetic, and the belated arrival of Wataru Endo saw him dropped back into the No 6 position.

Endo’s surprising emergence as a valuable starter this season during Mac Allister’s injury absence in December finally allowed Klopp to return to his initial vision with Mac Allister operating in a more advanced role.

Since the 3-1 victory over Burnley on February 10, eight of his 10 starts in all competitions have come in the No 8 role. In that period, his goal contributions have rocketed: he has added five goals and five assists to a tally which had sat at one goal and two assists in more than double the number of games.

In fact, his shots per game, touches in the box, touches in the attacking third, chances created and passes into the box have all increased significantly.

It is not simply the number of shots he is taking but their quality that has been so impressive. Mac Allister’s sensational strike against Sheffield United drew comparisons to Steven Gerrard’s goal against Olympiacos — a crucial goal in Liverpool’s path to 2005 Champions League glory. The side-by-side image of the pair striking the ball was almost identical (Gerrard is on the left below, Mac Allister on the right).

While Klopp joked it was a mis-hit, it was a reminder of how cleanly Mac Allister strikes the ball. His goal against Fulham in December was another fine example. Whether it is his shooting or his passing, he generally delivers a clean connection that rarely misses its target.

Powerful ball striking is arguably where the comparisons end physically — Mac Allister is almost three inches shorter than Gerrard, at around 5ft 10in — but that’s what makes his genius even more impressive.

Passing

Conor Bradley was in no doubt.

“I’ve never seen someone retain the ball so well,” he said of Mac Allister earlier this month. “He’s so calm on the ball and he’s so composed.”

Few would disagree, although it is noticeable how Mac Allister’s pass types have altered throughout his short Liverpool career. He is playing fewer long balls in his new role (2.8 vs 4.1), and his passes into the final third have decreased while those into the box have increased. He has become more of a receiver than a progressor from deep, looking to penetrate the box with his passing instead.

The most recent example was his assist for Salah’s winner against Brighton. His vision and quick thinking caught the away side napping, but it was not the only time Mac Allister attempted that style of pass. The pair’s connection has been growing.

The graphic below details how the position change has altered where he is operating on the pitch. Few would consider him a box-to-box, energetic midfielder, but he consistently covers most of the pitch during matches in Liverpool’s fluid midfield structure.

He has clearly been an increased presence in the opposition penalty area as well as just outside of it and in the dangerous half-spaces on either side.

The increased influence could have correlated to a drop in his defensive numbers but, as highlighted earlier, they have remained consistently strong. Plotting his tackles and interceptions onto the pitch illustrates that his defensive tenacity translates across his roles at No 6 and No 8; the centre of the pitch is his most active zone but there are also plenty of contributions on either flank, in his own penalty area and further forward.

Off-field influence

Mac Allister may not be the most vocal presence in the Liverpool dressing room — that task tends to be left to Van Dijk — but he is well respected and will speak up when he feels it is appropriate. When nicknamed ‘Gary’ by Klopp after the McAllister who played an integral role in Liverpool’s 2000-01 treble triumph, Alexis made it clear he wasn’t keen. He is now affectionately known as ‘Macca’.

He is absorbed in football, a mindset that immediately impressed Klopp, and everything is done for the benefit of the team.

“How can you not love a player or boy like him? He is incredible,” said Klopp. “He is educated in the best possible way: full of life, confident, funny, smart and an incredible footballer. You watch training sessions and the coaches look at each other and go, ‘Wow, what was that?’.”

He has built a close bond with Liverpool’s South American contingent, including Darwin Nunez, with the pair celebrating goals by pouring an imaginary mate — a South American caffeine-rich infused herbal drink. He has given mate cups as gifts to Szoboszlai and Ibrahima Konate.

Observe him on the training pitch and his team-mates are constantly impressed. Most recently, Liverpool’s social accounts uploaded a clip of Mac Allister performing a rabona pass during a rondo session.

Alexis 😮‍💨 pic.twitter.com/zGJ0Tbtq6P

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) April 9, 2024

“Mac Allister, the way he protects the ball, I’ve never seen before,” Curtis Jones said earlier this season. “He does this thing where he receives the ball, sticks his bum out and you can’t take the ball from him. He knows when he’s going to get pressed and which way he moves.”

It all adds up to make Mac Allister at least part of the discussion around who is the best midfielder in the Premier League, even if comparisons are difficult to make because midfielders operate under different conditions and instructions.

Manchester City’s Rodri — widely considered the gold standard in his position — is a significantly different player from Kevin De Bruyne, who is being discussed in the same conversation as Premier League legends such as Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Paul Scholes.

Mac Allister’s position having changed throughout the campaign makes it even more difficult to make comparisons. Rodri still leads the way for the sheer relentlessness of his passing in those advanced areas. No central midfielder has completed more passes and more passes into the final third.

Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard has completed more passes into the box. However, owing to his team’s dominance of the ball, Rodri is receiving it often with the opposition pinned back. Mac Allister is much more aggressive off the ball.

He has been Liverpool’s leading light in recent months and if he continues to be, the chances of Liverpool finishing with more silverware before the end of the season increases significantly.

(Top photos: Getty Images)