Alexis Mac Allister position addressed as Arne Slot makes X

Alexis Mac Allister position addressed as Arne Slot makes X-rated Liverpool admission

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has been asked about the improvement in form from Alexis Mac Allister in the Reds midfield

Arne Slot has pinpointed the reason behind Alexis Mac Allister's recent improved form that has prompted renewed transfer talk surrounding the Liverpool midfielder.

Mac Allister was this week linked with interest from bitter North West rivals Manchester United having long been courted by Spanish side Real Madrid.

His father Carlos, however, subsequently issued a short statement declaring the player is only concerned at present about the possibility of a new deal at Anfield as he approaches the final two years of his current contract signed when arriving from Brighton for £35million in the summer of 2023.

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Mac Allister's performance levels dipped during the first half of the season as he struggled for fitness after nursing a long-term injury problem, with Slot also highlighting the difficulty in building new partnerships after the squad overhaul during the summer.

"I think it's always a combination of factors, but fitness is a very important one," said Slot, whose team are at Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon. "I think the moment a player starts to play more and more games, he gets fitter and fitter.

"He’s not the only example of that, Dominik Szoboszlai is an example of that. After two-and-a-half years, you cannot compare him any more with the player of two-and-a-half years ago. Mainly the focus is on Hugo (Ekitike) and Florian (Wirtz) and the new ones, but Dom had the same trajectory.

"The second thing is if you bring in a few new players and a few leave, then you need new connections in the team so that takes a bit of time before everyone is ready, especially if you cannot constantly play with the same team for the reasons I've explained many times.

"They were not fit enough to play every single time, every three days. So that takes then a little bit of time, and if you score a set-piece against Sunderland, then the last half-hour feels nicer than if you concede against Nottingham Forest after half an hour."

Speaking earlier this year, Mac Allister suggested Liverpool had "changed too many things" during the summer transfer market, and Slot accepts the time it has taken the new signings time to adjust to the Reds' pressing game made it difficult for the Argentina international to produce his best form.

"One of the things that hurts you if you are not as fit as we are now is the pressing," said the Reds boss.

"And if you are more open in pressing - and what I mean by open is not that we conceded 15 counter-attacks, which some pundits try to say, which is not true - but we weren't as effective in our pressing as we were last season, because we were not ready enough yet and that takes a bit of time.

"Now we are much more ready. Even against (Manchester) City, you could see that we could play 45 minutes in the second half, even in the first half there were more signs that we were good, but people maybe didn't really notice.

"That has improved a lot and if that was not on the right level yet, then midfielders and defenders are more exposed, because they play through you, they can bring an extra player into the midfield.

"So the better we press in the first line, the less problems we have over there. But you cannot have the most ball possession in the league if everything was s**t throughout the whole season.

"We were at a good level, we've been very unlucky which I've said 120 times, but we are better now."

Having started six of the last seven Premier League games, Mac Allister will be hoping to retain his place in midfield, although Ryan Gravenberch is pushing for a recall after being benched for the FA Cup win over Brighton last weekend.

Hugo Ekitike is also poised to return in attack, while Joe Gomez could be asked to fill in at right-back, having returned from a hip injury with successive substitute appearances.

Liverpool will be hoping to avenge a shock 3-0 home defeat earlier this season when they travel to Forest, where they have won only one league game in 42 years.

But when asked if that November beating was the lowest point of the season, Slot said: "We had a few. Burnley felt really, really tough, the 1-1. City felt really hard as well because we played so well. We deserved so much more.

"Which other ones did we have? The first one (defeat) is always difficult, Palace away. Leeds was really tough, Bournemouth was really tough, all because it was in the last second of the games. Unbelievable.

"So sometimes being unlucky is hard, sometimes not getting what you deserve is hard. And we've hardly lost a game of football where you can accept, okay, this one is acceptable. Maybe City away was probably the only one.

"That wasn't nice to experience, but was what the one that was most deserved for us to lose."

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