Alexis Mac Allister – What’s next for Liverpool with the Argentine’s proven winner?

It seems like a long time ago now, but go back in the day Liverpool locked up the Premier League title under Arne Slot in 2025 and there is a great clip of Alexis Mac Allister.

As the final whistle blows and the players run onto the pitch to celebrate, Mac Allister sits alone on the bench and begins to cry., outside

That day, when the Argentine midfielder scored a goal the celebrations inside Anfield registered 1.74 on the Richter scale – just shy of the 2.0 required for a minor earthquake.

Mac Allister was undoubtedly a force that season and part of Liverpool’s title-winning campaign.

But a year on, after a disappointing campaign not helped by early injury problems, Mac Allister will be the first to admit that the 2025-26 season has fallen short of his previous standards.

It was undoubtedly his poorest of his three campaigns since arriving from Brighton for £35m in 2023.

Inevitably, there were question marks over his future in the summer, but seeing him play a key role for Argentina at the World Cup will delight new Liverpool boss Andoni Iraola – even if it means he will have to wait a little longer before meeting Mac Allister.

Bar Argentina’s last group stage game – where eligibility was already confirmed – the 27-year-old played every minute for his country, including 120 minutes against Cape Verde and Switzerland, which went into extra time. Only the goalkeeper, Emiliano Martinez of Aston Villa, has played more minutes for Argentina.

In those games, Mac Allister played 539 minutes, won 31 duels, made 10 tackles, made nine interceptions and applied pressure 208 times – all numbers that put him at the top of the rankings.

“I feel like the eight position, and the double number six (double pivot), is my best position, but I can play anywhere,” Mac Allister told ESPN last month.

That flexibility will be a no-brainer for Iraola – who is known to want his midfielders to be all-rounders, given his high press schedule and his desire for his teams to be direct.

Regardless of the result against England in the World Cup semi-final on Wednesday, Argentina will be in the United States until the weekend, when the third-place playoff and final will be played.

According to Fifa rules, players in the World Cup have the right to rest for at least three weeks, so anyone who will play this weekend will not return to their clubs until August 10 at the earliest, which is two weeks before the start of the Premier League season.

So there’s a strong possibility that Mac Allister won’t be ready to start in the first few weeks of the season, but Iraola will know that when it comes to his backfield, he already has a proven winner.

“It’s always about winning,” said Mac Allister on Saturday, after Argentina beat Switzerland in the quarter-finals in a game in which he scored.

Mac Allister’s CV already contains a World Cup and a Copa America title, as well as a Premier League title. He is the only man who has played 12 World Cup matches and has won all 12 matches.

He is no stranger to the big games and now perhaps Wednesday’s semi-final where he will face the England midfielder, will make it clear that he is still useful at the biggest stage.