Talking point from Ian Doyle in Singapore after Liverpool beat Leicester City 4-0
It was sufficient to even temporarily halt the incessant cheers from the passionate local Liverpool fans.
Mere minutes into Liverpool’s latest outing in Singapore’s National Stadium, there was an audible intake of breath when a strong challenge from behind by Leicester City midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall left summer signing Alexis Mac Allister writhing on the turf in clear distress.
All eyes were fixed on the prone Argentine. The relief, then, was tangible as he gingerly rose to his feet, brushed himself down and cracked on with the task in hand.
The Reds, of course, could ill afford another midfield injury. And if Leicester thought Mac Allister would be rattled by the robust foul, they soon discovered the opposite to be the case.
Previous friendlies against Karlsruher SC and Greuther Furth had offered glimpses of why Jurgen Klopp made the World Cup winner the priority of his summer rebuild, Liverpool snaffling him from Brighton for a bargain £35million.
Here, though, in the stifling heat of the Far East, the Reds witnessed the most compelling evidence yet of why Mac Allister can prove a transformational signing for a midfield that has been crying out for change.
The 24-year-old was a central figure as Liverpool overcame a slow start to blow Leicester away with an statement of attacking intent that saw three goals in eight blistering minutes shortly before half-time.
Mac Allister, with his low centre of gravity and tenacious strength in possession, has already shown at Brighton he can cut it in the rough and tumble of the Premier League. That durability will serve him well in a Klopp midfield.
But what really impressed here was how he married that with the ability to see and then execute a pass, best demonstrated when initiating the second goal by retaining possession under pressure in midfield and then feeding Diogo Jota, who in turn passed to Mohamed Salah to roll the ball into the path of teenager Bobby Clark to fire a crisp finish into the bottom corner from 16 yards.
Mac Allister had also found Jota inside the area five minutes earlier, shot from the Portuguese then only parried by Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen to allow Darwin Nunez to snaffle the opener.
Jota then notched the third with a fine header from Salah’s cross from the right with Ben Doak scoring the fourth midway through the second half when nodding in at the far post after a Dominik Szoboszlai corner had been flicked on. By then, Mac Allister was on the sidelines, his job done as part of the first-half team.
It may have only been 45 minutes. But it was sufficient to suggest Mac Allister is a certainty to start when the real stuff begins at Chelsea in a fortnight. He represents the future of Liverpool’s midfield.
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