John Aldridge has his say on Alexis Mac Allister's future and Dominik Szoboszlai's latest injury in the second half of his weekly column
Dominik Szoboszlai picked up a knock in Liverpool's win at Crystal Palace
Dominik Szoboszlai picked up a knock in Liverpool's win at Crystal Palace
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I know Virgil van Dijk has pulled out of the Netherlands squad because of a little niggle, but Dominik Szoboszlai has stayed with Hungary despite injuring his knee against Palace.
Any other club would pull them out of international duty. Manchester United, Arsenal, Man City - they’d all pull them. We’ve seen it before.
Any doubt and that’s it, decision made, you’re not playing. I don’t understand why we don’t throw our weight around like that.
I understand players want to play for their country. I was the same with Ireland. I would answer call-ups even when I was injured. I get what it means and how much it means to players.
But any other club would just pull them. That’s not happened here, I don’t know why. Hopefully that just means it’s not that serious.
It still sounds like they’re taking a risk. If he stays with Hungary and plays, we’ve just got to hope the decision doesn’t backfire and come back to hurt Liverpool.
Don’t rush Mac Allister contract decision
There’s no rush for Liverpool to resolve Alexis Mac Allister’s future. He’s in great form and has said he wants to stay.
One thing I will say about players - and it's not derogatory to anyone we're talking about - is when they play for contracts, you see a different player.
I've got loads of examples with Liverpool players and with players from other clubs. When they sign that contract for a lot more money, whatever it is—some lose the hunger. Some lose that fire in the belly.
Some players are not like that: Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard. It wouldn't matter, whatever they did was the same.
But some players unfortunately get that contract and they go missing. That's a reality. I'm not saying all, but some do.
So Liverpool have got to be a bit careful. Mac Allister knows the situation and he is playing for his future. There’s a carrot there for him.
He knows there is no contract at the moment but he’s playing for one. And we’re seeing a very different player to the one we saw last year.
We’re seeing the player who signed for Liverpool now because he knows he wants to stay. He wants a new contract and he's hungry.
I'm not just saying he will, but other players, when they've signed contracts, have lost that hunger there and sat back on the pile of notes.
I have to stress, I am not saying that about him. But it has happened in the past with other players.
So Liverpool don’t need to rush into a decision. And I just think if he keeps on playing like this, this year and next year, then he'll get what he deserves.
Trey Nyoni and Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool
Trey Nyoni and Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool(Image: Michael Regan/Getty Images)
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Nyoni has proved me wrong
Trey Nyoni is certainly banging on the door to be starting more for Liverpool. He’s had a brilliant couple of weeks, but he is only young.
For the young lads though, getting in the team or near the team speaks a lot about them.
It’s good that we’ve got two coming through in Trey and Rio that look good. Really good. People were maybe questioning leaving space in the squad for them and not signing replacements when Luis Diaz and Curtis Jones left.
We do need more depth in the squad, but these two are real players. But they’re getting great experience now and we’ll be all the better for it next year.
You’d like to think we’ll still bring some other players in, to strengthen the pack and ensure we can compete in Europe and on all domestic fronts. We need two squads, you need two teams and two players for every position nowadays.
The games come thick and fast, but having Trey step up and show his quality will help lighten the load a little bit.
People were questioning Rio, but he’s answering them back with his performances on the pitch.
And with Trey, a lot of people were not too sure about him. I hold my hands up, I was one of them. He’s a good player, but I wasn’t sure. But he’s now showing mentally and physically what he's got to offer.
And he's got a football brain, which I like. And he’ll just get better because he's only a kid. They both will.
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