Mac Allister responds after Klopp said he was "relieved" to come off at Wolves

17 September 2023 , 13:01

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Mac Allister responds after Klopp said he was "relieved" to come off at Wolves

Alexis Mac Allister has admitted that he found it difficult to play for Liverpool at Wolves so soon after returning from international duty, after Jurgen Klopp said the Argentina international was "relieved" to be taken off at half-time.

Klopp hooked Mac Allister at the break at Molineux when Liverpool were 1-0 down and routinely giving the ball away to their vibrant hosts, with the midfielder one of the chief culprits.

Mac Allister had been pictured breathing from an oxygen tube in the early hours of Wednesday morning having played for the world champions in a 3-0 win over Bolivia in La Paz. The city's Estadio Hernando Siles venue is situated at extremely high altitude, with players frequently known to have suffered when playing there.

Luis Diaz replaced Mac Allister at the break and played a key role as Liverpool turned the game around, eventually winning 3-1 thanks to strikes from Cody Gakpo and Andy Robertson plus an own goal from Hugo Bueno.

Klopp admitted that he had perhaps made a mistake picking the fatigued Mac Allister at the base of his midfield for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, saying at full-time: "The good thing about the first half was that it was that bad that I didn’t think we could play the second half like that.

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Mac Allister struggled in the first half at Wolves (Ryan Browne/REX/Shutterstock)

"Obviously we wanted to start completely differently, but for whatever reason it was not possible for the boys, you can see it. "Low energy level, Macca [Mac Allister], some others as well, you could just see they struggled.

"We couldn’t change five times at half-time, so we thought we’d change the system and one player, and give us a bit more speed up front, natural speed. He had some good moments in the first half but he was not disappointed to come off, more relief."

Mac Allister took to social media after the game, writing: "It’s never easy but extremely important to win after the international break. Nice to be back.”

Overcoming adversity was a key theme of the Liverpool players' reaction to the win, with Mac Allister's midfield colleague and fellow summer signing Dominik Szoboszlai saying: “At half-time the manager talked to us about the passion and what we needed in the second half, the work and what we needed to put into the game. I think we switched the formation and then everybody did their job and we turned the game.

“I think everyone would be even happier if we were not 1-0 down! But if we like to win like this then let’s continue, but let’s win at the end of the day, always.”

Mark Jones