Alexis Mac Allister has become a key cog in Liverpool's defensive system this season, as highlighted by two key statistics
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Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan.
Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan.
(Image: ANP via Getty Images)
When Alexis Mac Allister first took a phone call from Jurgen Klopp as he closed in on a move to Liverpool in the summer of 2023, the then Reds manager told his transfer target that he saw him being his new Ilkay Gundogan.
Having brought Gundogan in from Nurnberg during his time as Borussia Dortmund coach, Klopp helped shape the 2009 recruit from a relative unknown to a Germany international who starred for BVB as they won two Bundesliga titles and appeared in the 2013 Champions League final.
Such was Gundogan's development, in fact, that he eventually moved to Manchester City, where he has since won five Premier League crowns, four League Cups, two FA Cups and the 2023 Champions League when City completed their historic treble.
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Gundogan was possibly just a few days removed from that treble success when Klopp told Mac Allister of his likeness to his former player and the Reds star has recently opened up on how that particular conversation went during the Rest is Football podcast with Gary Lineker.
"I had a call with him and I don't know if it was that moment I could feel we were going to do amazing things and I really enjoyed my time with him," Mac Allister says of his first chat with Klopp.
"He didn't need to (sell the club to me). Basically he said that there was going to be a change in terms of midfielders for the team and he wanted me to be a part of it. He compared me, for example, to players like Gundogan, who he managed at Dortmund.
"He said that we had similar things and that I could be an important player for Liverpool and his team, so that was enough, enough to say: 'I need to go there.'"
The comparison was a valid one from Klopp and the idea that the pair were so stylistically similar was proven in the data at the time.
According to figures from scouting tool Fbref in the summer of 2023, both were in the 93% percentile for goals scored from midfielders in Europe's top five leagues, while Mac Allister had greater percentages for defensive actions (28), aerial battles (46) and the amount times possession is won (73).
Liverpool's No.10 was also comparable with the City star for touches (77% to 75%) and chances created (66 to 64), according to statistics supplied. Opta figures, the pair also share similar numbers for passing accuracy between 87 and 88% as well as total carries over a minimum of five metres (390 and 387).
Mac Allister is in the 94 percentile for shots, which dwarfed Gundogan's 81, although the City man had considerably more touches in the opposition's penalty area (89 to 67), which was explained by the dominance of Pep Guardiola's side compared to Brighton, who that season finished sixth.
Gundogan himself has previously spoken about how important Klopp was to his career, saying in 2018: "With 'Kloppo' everything really started for me.
"Even though I won't forget Michael Oenning and Dieter Hecking (former coaches at Bochum and Nurnberg respectively), 'Kloppo' was like a father to me and his speeches can be extremely motivating.
"I learned a lot and I managed to improve my game a lot, too. Those days left a mark on my career. Those were my first steps in European football, too, because it was an opportunity that I hadn't had before. So that's another thing I have to thank him for."
Gundogan's impact has been decidedly less influential since his return to an out-of-sorts City from Barcelona in August but Mac Allister's importance has only grown this term alongside a Ryan Gravenberch who is in the form of his career.
Mac Allister now on Fbref, based on the last 365 days of football across Europe's top-five leagues, sees Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez as his most like-for-like ahead of Corentin Tolisso of Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen's Exequiel Palacios and Newcastle United's Brazil international Bruno Guimaraes, who rates as the fifth closest type of player to the Liverpool man.
As part of a two-man pivot alongside Gravenberch with a third midfielder, usually Curtis Jones or Dominik Szoboszlai, further forward, Mac Allister now ranks in the 95th percentile for tackles and in the 98th for blocks, which are statistics that might surprise given the former Brighton star is not renowned as one of the game's great destroyers.
Those two stats do at least point towards the ongoing change in Mac Allister's game and help explain why Liverpool's defence has been the most miserly in the Premier League this term. Only Inter have conceded fewer than the one goal the Reds have shipped in the Champions League too, which came after just three minutes against AC Milan back in September. In the starkest of comparisons in late 2024, Gundogan rates as low as the two percentile for tackles and 10 for blocks.
Mac Allister might have been brought in by Klopp to become his 'new Gundogan' but the adjustments since, particularly under Slot, have seen him become his own man at Anfield. His understated influence will be missed for upcoming games against Girona and Fulham next week while he serves two suspensions but the tweaks to his game have been vital to what Slot is trying to achieve.