Arne Slot is aware of Alexis Mac Allister‘s struggle to reach the levels he expects but is confident the Liverpool midfielder “will be back” after a chase for full fitness.
Mac Allister scored twice in Argentina’s 6-0 thrashing of Puerto Rico on Tuesday night, describing it as an “important moment” in his season.
“The season hasn’t started in the best way for me,” he admitted, before adding that “these kinds of matches help us get into the swing of things.”
That friendly was only the second time Liverpool’s No. 10 has played a full 90 minutes this season – both of which have come with his country, rather than his club – after a buildup of injuries ended his previous campaign early.
“One thing that is clear is that he missed out on a lot, unfortunately,” Slot told reporters on Friday.
“He went out immediately after we won the league and we were expecting him to be back from the start of pre-season, which he wasn’t.
“That led to the fact that he wasn’t able to play three times in a row, so he went in, out, in, out, 60 minutes, 45 minutes.
“And that’s never an ideal scenario for a player.
“But like all the others he’s a player that has experienced so many things in his career already, so he will be back at the level he wants and the level I want from him.”
Mac Allister finds himself in a similar situation as that of Alexander Isak, who spent the summer training alone before his £125 million move to Liverpool on deadline day.
Slot believes the striker’s “pre-season may be finished now,” which is likely to be the same for Mac Allister.
“We were just talking about Macca, we were talking about Alex, Conor Bradley was the same in pre-season: those are players we need to bring back towards a lot of playing time,” the head coach continued.
“But you cannot go from no playing time at all to three times in a week. We had a few of them, which led to changes.
“But everywhere around the world where teams have to face schedules like this, they have more than 11 players to take on this schedule.
Mac Allister in same boat as Isak
“The thing is if you rotate and win, you ‘did the smart thing’; if you rotate and you lose, you ‘have to play more with the same players’.
“This is how football works, but it’s clear that in general – especially for certain positions – it’s almost impossible to play them every single game.
“If you do, it’s the risk of a player getting injured.
“This has happened just before the international break with a few players and has happened during the international break with some players – not with ours, except for Alisson of course.
“So you have to find a balance in this, but I think the ones we have are now longer together.
“Yes, Alex is not the same player as Hugo, but they are both a No. 9 and they both know what to do in our system.
“It’s only something I like, that I have more than 11 players who can play a game of football, and that’s never the reason for us to drop points or to lose a game of football.”
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