Liverpool don’t intend to let Alexis Mac Allister go right now. Does he suit Iraola’s demands?

The last player to return to Liverpool this summer may need a little extra time to settle back in.

Following an exhausting and emotionally charged spell with Argentina at the World Cup, in which the defending champions reached the final before losing to Spain, Alexis Mac Allister arrived back on Merseyside this week, and is expected to need at least a fortnight to get back up to speed.

After a disappointing 2025-26 season, and despite whispers of a move away, Mac Allister’s focus will now turn to sharpening up his game for Liverpool — unless there is a major change of pace in the transfer window before the end of the month.

According to sources — all of whom asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions — Mac Allister’s focus is on impressing new head coach Andoni Iraola and helping Liverpool improve their Premier League position, following a torrid campaign that ended in a fifth-place finish for the outgoing title holders. There are no active talks over a new contract now he’s into the final two years of the current one but, equally, no panic about the future.

Liverpool are waiting for Inter’s next move in their pursuit of Curtis Jones, so letting another first-team midfielder go this summer is not part of their immediate plans.

Mac Allister played a key role in Argentina reaching a second straight World Cup final (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

The intriguing element is whether Liverpool would change their stance if a serious offer came in.

Right now, there is not one on the table, but a potential midfield merry-go-round is possible if Manchester City’s Rodri moves to Spain over the next two weeks, and that could bring Mac Allister into the picture.

Liverpool chose to prioritise contract extensions for his fellow midfielders Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, and with two years left on his deal, Mac Allister’s value will only decrease with each passing window. While this summer would be an ideal time to extract maximum value for a player who will be 28 in December, the difficulty of finding a replacement at this stage of the summer makes that unlikely.

Iraola will cast his eye over Mac Allister this week and work out how he best fits into his system.

“I think Alexis has been one of the best players at the club for the last few years, and he has had a very good World Cup, so it is normal that other clubs want our best players,” the new Liverpool head coach said last month.

“It always happens in other markets. But I want to keep my good players. I’m looking forward more to signing new players rather than losing the ones we have here.”

While Gravenberch received a lot of praise for his performances during Liverpool’s Premier League title-winning season in 2024-25, and Szoboszlai was just as eye-catching, there is a strong argument that Mac Allister was their best and most important midfielder for much of that campaign.

He was at the peak of his powers and in his prime that season — which is why there was such a surprise at how stark the drop-off was in the next one.

It had been a rare summer off for the now 54-cap Argentina international too, but injury issues then disrupted his pre-season, and he never managed to reach the standards he had set since his arrival from Brighton and Hove Albion in July 2023.

Like many of his Liverpool team-mates, Mac Allister looked a shadow of his usual self last season (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)

Liverpool had plenty of problems last season, and one of the glaring issues within the system was their ineffective press.

Opposition teams were able to comfortably play out against Arne Slot’s side, which left the midfield exposed and with plenty of ground to cover. Mac Allister, therefore, felt he had been unfairly singled out for criticism.

The intensive and aggressive style Iraola has brought with him from previous club Bournemouth aims to fix those issues, and the signs have been promising in pre-season. His system, though, is very demanding on the two central midfielders.

At least one of them (which, in the example below from Sunday’s Anfield friendly against Monaco, is Szoboszlai)…

…or sometimes both of them…

… are required to press very high to back up the No 9 and No 10.

Iraola asks his centre-backs to dominate their duels, but that can create loose balls in the middle of the pitch. That means the midfield two have to make repeated recovery runs if the opposition find a way to play their way out of the situation.

Gravenberch was impressive in this instance against Monaco…

…but a breakdown in the press a few minutes earlier opened up the space in behind the midfield two, who had taken up aggressive positions.

The importance of the pair covering space was highlighted in the build-up to the penalty Liverpool conceded against Monaco.

As the pair tired towards the end of the first half, Szoboszlai did not block the passing lane, and Gravenberch was unable to recover before Aleksandr Golovin was fouled by Virgil van Dijk in the box.

It is a position that feels almost designed to fit Szoboszlai’s skill set, but it would appear less natural for Mac Allister and Gravenberch.

Mac Allister has never been the most mobile, but context is important when considering physical data against the eye test. The 27-year-old actually covered more distance and high-intensity distance last season than in the title-winning campaign, per SkillCorner.

That is likely because he had more space to cover due to the broken high press. And it meant that he was bypassed more often, which matched what fans saw, because often it looked as if he was not close enough to disrupt opponents.

That was reflected in his defensive output, which had up until last season been an often underrated area of his game. Mac Allister made notably fewer recoveries — dropping from 5.1 per 90 minutes to 3.8, while his true tackles (a combination of tackles won, tackles lost and fouls committed while attempting a tackle, to quantify how often a player ‘sticks a foot in’) per 1,000 opposition touches also dropped sharply, from 14.6 to 9.2.

Running figures do not necessarily prove the athletic ability of a player, because they can be heavily dependent on a team’s style.

Liverpool were much more possession-based than Iraola’s Bournemouth, for example.

Again, context is important.

Mac Allister averaged around 852 metres covered at high intensity per 60 minutes of ball-in-play time last season — that ranked 63rd of 90 midfielders in the Premier League. For Bournemouth, Tyler Adams was up at 1,041m (23rd), Alex Scott at 1,147m (14th) and Marcus Tavernier (seventh) at 1,250m.

This is not to suggest the Argentinian is incapable of adapting and returning to the level of his first two seasons at Anfield, either.

The World Cup was a step in the right direction. He looked much more like himself in all but one game on his country’s road to the final, two of which also went to extra time (as did the final).

According to FIFA player data, only fellow midfielder Rodri of Spain (96.2km) covered more distance than Mac Allister (90.6km). Yes, Argentina making the final meant he played more games than most, but he was able to sustain his physical output while logging the most minutes of any outfield player in the tournament. That, though, may have its own impact at some stage during the coming season.

If Mac Allister does remain at Liverpool after the window closes on September 1, then he, like others in the squad, will have to adapt their game to the demands Iraola will place on them if he wants to become a constant in the starting XI.