Jamie Carragher has questioned Alexis Mac Allister’s ability to play the holding midfield role following a draw at Luton Town.
The No.10 was partly to blame as the hosts secured an opener from a superb breakaway in the second-half of action.
“Liverpool in midfield are improved from what we saw last season, but they still haven’t got a top holding midfielder,” the Sky Sports pundit spoke on the platform. “MacAllister isn’t a top holding midfielder. He’s good on the ball in terms of receiving, but defensively, he finds it really tough and he lacks a bit of pace for that position.”
The World Cup winner appeared to be unaware that he was leaving Kostas Tsimikas in a 2v1 prior to the opening goal.
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A fair assessment?
Should Liverpool bring in Fluminense’s Andre or any other young holding midfielder on their shortlist, one would have to imagine that Mac Allister would be pushed into a more natural position.
He’s not solely at fault for Luton’s counter-attack goal, even if we can point out how he might have better handled this particular defensive scenario.
If we’re to assess the former Brighton man’s value to this Liverpool side, however, we have to acknowledge that he’s being played out of position due to the quality he brings to our transitions not to mention the possession-based side to our game.
Trent’s lack of pace seems to be consistently overlooked. That’s a far bigger issue and was something Luton and so many other teams regularly target as a weakness in the Liverpool setup.
trent is way faster than alexis though
To be honest Mac Allister should not have still been on the pitch when Luton scored. He had consistently given the ball away and failed to win the tackles he went into. Klopp has to take some of the blame – he was clearly having a mare and had also been booked. Endo should have been given an opportunity to play with n what is his natural position.
Still wonder why not play Endo and moved Mac Allister in advance role more….
Carrangher has spoken my words, it up to the coach to do something about it, I was shading tears for endo In that game against luton.
Jamie is spot on with his appraisal of Alexis not being right for the DM position 100%. Did Alexis play No6 for Brighton, I think not. Why did LFC buy Endo a 100% holding player for Japan and Stuttgart. Play Alexis in his rightful position, two players available at least for each position of course. When Andre arrives alternate him with Endo. Alexis has Curtis Jones as back up. This is not rocket science.
What great managers you would ALL make. Why Jamie C is still doing punditry is beyond me!