It’s been chanted across a myriad of platforms since Liverpool emerged triumphant against Chelsea in the Premier League, but such music is not dulled by repetition: Arne Slot’s Reds have won ten of 11 matches across all competitions this season.
Liverpool’s winning start to the season has lanced forward in a nearly unbroken line, with a shock defeat on home soil against Nottingham Forest the lonely blemish on the record across all competitions.
All this with Jurgen Klopp’s shadow still swept across Merseyside, the lionised German having stepped down from his manager’s position in the summer after nine illustrious years.
Slot’s task was a daunting one, but he has passed the early stages with flying colours, especially after Liverpool failed to address transfer concerns in defence and midfield. The backline is redoubtable once more and Ryan Gravenberch has been fashioned into the surprise solution at number six.
Jurgen Klopp's final flourish
Klopp’s shocking announcement that he would step down at the end of the 2023/24 season hit Merseyside with the force of a high-speed freight train, but Slot has excelled in bringing the best out of the talented squad that he has inherited.
The smooth-talking Dutchman has triumphed, but he’s been aided greatly by Klopp’s final flourish. Indeed, in 2023, Liverpool were in disrepair, with a malfunctioned midfield and a unit sapped of confidence and vigour after failing to qualify for the Champions League in 2022/23.
Fabinho and Jordan Henderson were both sold, having been thrown by the wayside that year. Moreover, a whole host of midfielders were cut loose at the ends of their contracts: Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, James Milner.
Klopp charted a new course with his transfer business, indeed bringing in Gravenberch, 22, who has been one of Liverpool’s finest and most instrumental players under Slot’s wing.
That’s hardly all. Dominik Szoboszlai arrived from RB Leipzig after stand-in sporting director Jorg Schmadtke activated his £60m release clause, while Wataru Endo was surprisingly signed for just £16m after Liverpool missed out on both Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia to Chelsea.
The Japan international played a crucial part in winning the Carabao Cup and served industriously in the anchoring role, steadying the ship.
But the finest of the lot is surely Alexis Mac Allister, whose £35m acquisition from Premier League rivals Brighton & Hove Albion raised eyebrows given the shrewd figure.
He’s Liverpool’s lifeblood, so important and oft-underrated.
Alexis Mac Allister is Liverpool's lifeblood
Mac Allister, who won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, assisting in the final, has chalked up 57 appearances for Liverpool since leaving the South Coast, scoring eight goals and supplying seven assists.
As per FBref, the 25-year-old ranks among the top 8% of central midfielders across Europe’s top five leagues over the past year for both shot-creating actions and for tackles, the top 17% for assists and passes attempted, the top 1% for blocks and the top 14% for progressive passes per 90.
1.
Alexis Mac Allister
33
99
2.
Wataru Endo
29
48
3.
Joe Gomez
32
47
4.
Virgil van Dijk
36
40
5.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
28
39
Simply look at the table above to work out how brilliant Mac Allister was in the middle of the park for Liverpool last season, winning so many tackles – more than double Liverpool’s second-placed tackler last season: Endo – and supercharging Klopp’s high-octane, purposeful press.
Pundit Joe Cole hailed the “superstar” of a footballer last season, acknowledging Liverpool’s impressive addition and marvelling over how he “can play anywhere” in the centre of the field, such is his dynamism.
It’s hard to communicate the importance of this South American sensation to Slot’s Liverpool team. Aside from the prolific flurry that dragged Liverpool’s title bid forward toward the business end of the 2023/24 season, he’s rarely channelled a stream of goals and assists, albeit impressing with the odd thunder-cracker.
Mac Allister’s all-encompassing skillset lends itself to a control-focused role in Slot’s control-focused Liverpool system, but an excellent ball-striking quality and intelligence also allows him to open up a dimension otherwise inaccessible to the Reds, something that proved invaluable as his teammates toiled at stages of Klopp’s final season.
FSG must whoop in delight at bringing him to the club for such a smart transfer fee. It’s not a surprise, but he’s since far outgrown that one-time price tag.
Alexis Mac Allister's market value in 2024/25
What a bargain. It’s quite remarkable to think that Liverpool only signed Mac Allister for £35m, for he has since seen his value skyrocket in what consolidates Liverpool’s sensational coup.
As you can see above, CIES Football Observatory have crunched the numbers and concluded that the £150k-per-week midfielder currently holds a market value of £74m, which translates to a £39m rise (111%) from the figure that Liverpool paid Brighton only one year ago.
This is eye-catching, but Mac Allister is indispensable; you’d have to search far and wide to uncover a Liverpool fan who’d be willing to cash in on him, even if the Reds could turn a tidy profit by doing so.
Liverpool might have beaten Chelsea in the Premier League last weekend, but they did lack a degree of control that would have been achieved with the Argentine in the starting line-up, for he was only on the pitch for nine minutes but completed eight passes, both of his long balls and also won two duels and two tackles apiece.
In the best sense of the word, he’s a metronome for Slot. The heartbeat. The lifeblood. Alexis is majestic, and Liverpool have struck a veritable treasure trove of gold with this signing.
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