Alexis Mac Allister's Liverpool future assessed as World Cup record breaker plots England exit
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Alexis Mac Allister has recovered from a poor season at Liverpool to play a key role in Argentina reaching the World Cup semi-finalsAlexis Mac Allister now has England in his sights as the Liverpool midfielder's World Cup odyssey continues.After coming into the Argentina side during the group stages of the 2022 tournament in Qatar, Mac Allister has become a vital player for his nation.He played a key role in them lifting the trophy three-and-a-half years ago, and after opening the scoring in the 3-1 quarter-final victory over Switzerland in Kansas City, it will be England next up in the last four for the reigning champions.All of this has come off the back of the most disappointing of Mac Allister's three seasons at Liverpool to date, with the former Brighton man looking way off the pace as the Reds trailed in to a fifth place finish before Arne Slot was sacked.Those displays have led to Mac Allister's future at Liverpool being questioned, but have his World Cup displays underlined just what the Reds could be losing?Our writers discuss the future of the Argentina international.Paul GorstAmong the worryingly long list of Liverpool players who underperformed last season, Alexis Mac Allister perhaps sat somewhere near the top.The Argentina international was sluggish, apprehensive and appeared to lack the requisite aggression needed to stamp authority on Premier League games in the midfield.Some theorised he was keeping more than one eye on the World Cup with defending champions Argentina and nothing since the tournament started last month has suggested those claims were baseless. On the contrary, in fact.Mac Allister looks totally different to the player who laboured last time out at Anfield and the feeling that many Liverpool squad members have benefited from time away this summer has been prevalent.It's easy to understand why when you see players like Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak looking so refreshed for their respective nations at the World Cup.
The exact same applies to Mac Allister, whose header against Switzerland helped Argentina into the last four in the early hours of Sunday morning.The Reds star will now battle Manchester City's Elliot Anderson and Arsenal's Declan Rice in the engine room on Wednesday night for a place in the final. How he fares against the two £100m men could be instructive to what follows this coming season at Liverpool.Mac Allister will now miss a major portion of the pre-season period given Argentina's campaign but when he returns to Merseyside, this must be the player Andoni Iraola is presented with for the season ahead.The general struggles and widespread malaise of last season can no longer be used to excuse underperformance from individuals, and Mac Allister has a point to prove at Liverpool, unquestionably.Mark JonesWhatever happens over the next week Alexis Mac Allister is already a World Cup record breaker.Not only has the Liverpool midfielder become just to the third man to go 12 appearances at World Cup finals without defeat, he is the only man to have won all 12 of those games.When you throw in that he's a Premier League and Copa America champion too, you can surely come to acclaim Mac Allister as that most revered of footballers - 'a winner'.But then you come to last season.Like many of his colleagues the Reds' No.10 was way, way off it over the course of the campaign, often looking physically unable to compete in the modern Premier League, and surely considering himself fortunate that Arne Slot would keep picking him more often than not, even though he didn't look to be enjoying himself.With two years remaining on his contract and seemingly no discussions being held over a new one, it was starting to become apparently that the former Brighton man could be on the way out at Anfield.
Yet his World Cup displays have served as a timely reminder of just what Liverpool have on their hands.In a summer where midfielders are changing clubs for exorbitant amounts of money, Liverpool have to consider just how much it would cost to replace Mac Allister were they to let him go.With an awful lot of work needing to be done on virtually all areas of the team, offloading him would create a headache that is surely best avoided.Liverpool need additions right now - a combative, dynamic midfielder would be a good one - and they also need to keep characters like Mac Allister around.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE! All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page