Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool is challenged by Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale Milano during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)placeholder image
Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool is challenged by Marcus Thuram and Lautaro Martinez of FC Internazionale Milano during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD6 match between FC Internazionale Milano and Liverpool FC at Stadio San Siro on December 09, 2025 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images) | Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool will tinker rather than make wholesale changes in the summer with one title winner linked with an exit.
Footballer’s are only human. A fact often forgotten when they are judged and critiqued to the nth degree.
Liverpool players have had it harder than most this season despite having to deal with something that no professional sportsmen in their prime should have to, the death of a much beloved teammate and friend. The transient nature of football also means that best friends can be carted off to the other side of the world at a minute’s notice.
Who Liverpool should buy to replace Alexis Mac Allister
One Anfield favourite who this seems to have affected is Alexis Mac Allister. A player loved by Arne Slot and by those who follow the club up and down the country and across the continent. The 27-year old was close to players like Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota and it could be an obvious explanation for why he hasn’t looked like himself this season.
With the arrival of Florian Wirtz and Liverpool likely to sign a “proper” no.6 in the summer, the future of Mac Allister looks bleak. Reports of interest from Man United, in what would be a controversial move, raise the question of what approach should be taken and there is an obvious answer. Sell Mac Allister to make way and fund a move for Adam Wharton. The Crystal Palace midfielder is perfect for Liverpool, a silky smooth deep-lying playmaker who would dovetail perfectly with Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Wirtz. If Liverpool qualify for the Champions League, he would only cost £60m.
Jermain Pennant urges Mac Allister to be dropped
On talkSPORT’s Inside Liverpool show, Jermaine Pennant has highlighted that Mac Allister hasn’t been himself this season and reckons that another factor could be the injury which disrupted his pre-season last summer.
The pundit said: “Listen, we love you [Mac Allister]. You’ve been a great player for Liverpool. You are a great player; you were in the Team of the Season. I touched on that after your injury in pre-season. You’ve come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone. In that [Man City] game, he was literally a bystander. He didn’t really get into it at all and that’s what I touched on. It was an observation.”
When asked if the 27-year-old should be taken out of the firing line, Pennant replied: “Sometimes it could be as simple as that. You need to rest and you need your mind to rest and reset, and then you come back the player that you were.
“It is demanding and when the team isn’t flourishing and things aren’t going well, that’s when it can get really punishing, not only on your body, but on your mind as well.” Nothing lasts forever and Mac Allister has had long enough to get up to speed, maybe his mind is already elsewhere.
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