Arne Slot is aware of Alexis Mac Allister’s struggle to reach the level he expects, but is confident the Liverpool midfielder will “bounce back” after a hunt for full fitness.
Mac Allister scored twice in Argentina’s 6-0 defeat to Puerto Rico on Tuesday evening and described it as an “important moment” in his season.
“The season hasn’t started in the best way for me,” he admitted, before adding that “games like this help us get the hang of things.”
That friendly marked only the second time Liverpool’s number 10 has played a full 90 minutes this season – both with his country rather than his club – after a succession of injuries ended his previous season prematurely.
“One thing is clear: unfortunately he missed a lot,” Slot told reporters on Friday.
“He left immediately after we won the league and we expected him to be back from the start of pre-season, which wasn’t the case.
“That led to him not being able to play three times in a row, so he went in, out, in, out, 60 minutes, 45 minutes.
“And that is never an ideal scenario for a player.
“But like all the others, he is a player who has been through so much in his career, so he will be back at the level he wants and the level I expect from him.”
Mac Allister finds himself in a similar situation to that of Alexander Isak, who spent the summer training alone before moving to Liverpool for £125m on deadline day.
Slot believes the striker’s pre-season may now be over, 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 for a lot of playing time,” the head coach continued.
“But you can’t go from no playing time at all to three times a week. We had a few and that made changes.”
“But everywhere in the world where teams are faced with these types of schedules, they have more than 11 players to include in this schedule.
Mac Allister in the same boat as Isak
“The point is, if you rotate and win, you’ve ‘done the smart thing’; if you rotate and lose, you need to ‘play more with the same players.’
“This is how football works, but it is clear that in general – especially for certain positions – it is almost impossible to play them every match.
“If you do that, you run the risk of a player getting injured.
“This has happened to some players just before the international break and to some players it has happened during the international break – not ours, except Alisson of course.
“So you have to find a balance here, but I think the ones we have have been together longer now.
“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 just something I like that I have more than eleven players who can play a game of football. That is never a reason for us to drop points or lose a game of football.”
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