With a gulf in Liverpool’s midfield rising within the two years since Gini Wijnaldum‘s exit, the signing of Alexis Mac Allister may lastly resolve it.
Through the years, Liverpool have proved to supply masterstrokes within the switch market to place collectively a facet able to successful the lot beneath Jurgen Klopp.
Arguably Klopp’s largest problem in his Liverpool profession is constructing the second coming of his workforce, to compete once more domestically and in Europe.
There have been indicators of this transition because the potential of a brand new entrance three began to be pieced collectively by the acquisitions of Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz, and including Diogo Jota into the combination creates a juggernaut of an attacking power.
Ibrahima Konate has proven there will probably be life with out Virgil van Dijk, nevertheless it nonetheless seems like there will probably be surgical procedure required on this space of the pitch both this summer time or subsequent.
The massive elephant within the room that wants addressing above all else is the midfield rebuild.
Such a key part in Klopp’s gegenpressing philosophy has wanted a makeover for such a very long time.
The very fact Thiago was the one midfielder Liverpool had introduced in because the title-winning 2019/20 season highlights how little consideration this downside has had – and now the Reds are paying the worth.
With Gini Wijnaldum‘s presence such a key cog, his exit was all the time going to go away a gaping gap that wanted plugging.
His vitality and work ethic rubbed off on the remainder of the workforce and left the facet much less weak to counter-attacks.
Because the season simply gone has proved, with out an lively, workmanlike midfield Liverpool may be carved aside from the only of passes or lengthy balls excessive.
This got here time and time once more from opposition gamers with the ability to choose their head up and discover a team-mate.
Klopp’s prime sides had been their greatest at urgent opposing gamers to the purpose the place they couldn’t suppose straight, not to mention kick a soccer in the precise course.
Wijnaldum was an enormous a part of this as his place on the left-hand facet of Liverpool’s 4-3-3 allowed the attacking mixture of Sadio Mane and Andy Robertson to actually thrive.
The dearth of Wijnaldum has seen the breakdown of the system that functioned like clockwork.
Fortunately, the Reds appear on the precise path this summer time to bolstering their midfield, with Alexis Mac Allister coming in from Brighton.
The Argentine is available in on the good age of 24 and the correct amount of expertise within the Premier League.
Liverpool have fallen into the lure of letting their trusted midfielders like Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and even Thiago age collectively.
This has contributed to an absence of depth and letting the opposition glide previous them as a consequence of that lack of vitality to make a deal with.
On the similar time, Liverpool’s extra inexperienced midfielders similar to Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho have discovered difficulties in studying Klopp’s calls for from the center of the park.
Mac Allister coming in on the good improvement age, earlier than he hits his prime years, is strictly the profile of midfielder Liverpool needs to be in search of.
It mirrors the signing of Wijnaldum, as he was 25 years outdated when signing and nonetheless had room to develop because the urgent machine he grew to become.
Moreover, the Dutchman got here in as an attacking midfielder, with many Liverpool followers left bemused as to the place he fitted within the puzzle. It turned out he was the essential piece to let the remainder of the facet movement.
It solely took a couple of video games into Wijnaldum’s time at Liverpool to know the place the administration workforce noticed his place.
He reworked from a No. 10 who was all about targets into arguably probably the most full midfielder of the Klopp period.
There appears to be an analogous notion of the form of participant Mac Allister is, as he has performed extra of a complicated midfield function as a consequence of his creativity and intelligence on the ball.
This could not ignore his attributes as an all-rounded midfielder.
As an illustration, per FBref, he had the second-most tackles of any Brighton participant within the Premier League final season behind Moises Caicedo, with 70, which is 5 greater than Fabinho.
The variety of tackles additionally betters Wijnaldum’s greatest league season, with 41 for Liverpool in 2018/2019.
These statistics present that the targets and assists that made Mac Allister are only a small a part of the general package deal Liverpool are going to get.
“I feel the managers who work with me know I can do it all over the place that they want me,” he mentioned upon his arrival.
It appears he can play wherever across the pitch, which will probably be good on this new field system Liverpool adopted in the direction of the tip of the season.
Wijnaldum got here in an unknown when it comes to what sort of participant we had been getting and turned out to be a steal at £25 million, for the box-to-box participant Liverpool craved to construct Klopp’s first nice midfield.
Maybe most significantly, Wijnaldum’s health document noticed him begin 206 occasions in simply 5 years at Anfield.
This availability is much like our new No. 10, who began 81 of his 112 outings in three-and-a-half seasons with Brighton, solely lacking one recreation by damage.
From what Mac Allister has proven in a Brighton shirt, this appears like the beginning of Klopp’s subsequent nice engine in the midst of the park.
* This can be a visitor article for This Is Anfield by Jake Clay. Comply with Jake on Twitter, @Jakeclay98.
