David Lynch has issued a damning verdict on one Liverpool player who he feels is incapable of playing in the Premier League anymore as his physicality has ‘completely gone’.
One man whose performances this season put the Reds’ collective troubles into microcosm is Alexis Mac Allister, who was one of the best midfielders in the division when we won the title last year but has suffered an alarming decline in 2025/26.
Gary Neville issued the surprising claim last month that the Argentina midfielder – still only 27 – is ‘coming towards the end‘, although it seems that the Sky Sports pundit isn’t alone with such a doom-mongering assessment of our number 10.
Speaking on the Media Matters podcast for Anfield Index, Lynch branded Mac Allister’s performance in the 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa as ‘awful’ and fears that the Liverpool midfielder is no longer able for the physicality of the Premier League.
The journalist said of the 2022 World Cup winner: “I think he’s completely gone, isn’t he? The physicality in his game, which wasn’t great to begin with, has just completely declined to a level where he cannot play Premier League football anymore.
“What’s the point in asking him to try and do this, to try and control Premier League midfields? It’s a failure for me if Mac Allister’s still at the club next season. The idea that they’re going to expect him to be even close to good enough is fanciful to me.”
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Liverpool’s number 10 has been miles off his best in this campaign, although we’d have a significant degree of sympathy for him because of the sheer volume of football that he’s played since joining from Brighton three years ago.
Mac Allister has either missed or sat out just nine of the Reds’ 113 Premier League games during his time at Anfield (starting 91), accruing a total of 10,866 minutes on the pitch since joining the Merseyside club in June 2023 (Transfermarkt).
In that time he’s also played 28 matches for Argentina, most of which have involved transatlantic travel and been competitive fixtures in either the Copa America or World Cup qualifying, and he played most of the latter tournament when his nation won it six months before he came to Liverpool.
Not only does the 27-year-old have a lot of minutes under his belt over the past three years, he’s also been frequently asked to perform a defensive midfield role at Anfield due to the lack of a true number 6 in the prime of their career since Fabinho’s exit in 2023.
If the Reds were to address that void in the squad during the summer with a signing such as Lamine Camara, that could free up Mac Allister to play further forward, thus requiring slightly less from him in terms of physical attributes.
We understand Lynch’s concerns about the former Brighton man, but we certainly aren’t going to write him off just yet.
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He got a bad injury last season, think it was against Everton, and hasn’t been the same. He struggled to get fully fit and he’s been poor. But saying that most of the Liverpool team has been poor.
What hasn’t helped is slot has tinkered with the midfield all season. Wirtz has come in the midfield, we play a 4231 not 433 as last season. Alexis mac allister is not a defensive midfielder, he’s not box to box. This was always going to be the problem buying wirtz, it’s completely upset the consistent midfield of last season. Is gravenberch any better than Mac allister? I don’t think so.
Why was gravenberch given a new contract and Alexis mac allister wasn’t. Alexis mac allister cost us just 35 million. You won’t get the same quality midfielder for that price now.
He is still playing well for Argentina. I will use the phrase arne slot said. One of the things we have to improve is very, very obvious and I would have preferred not to talk about it here but you’re actually almost forcing me to.
We have to change the manager!
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