‘Never seen before’: Curtis Jones amazed at what £35m Liverpool player can do on the ball

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Curtis Jones says Liverpool teammate Alexis Mac Allister is just impossible to get the ball off.

Mac Allister has had to get used to a new position since joining the Reds this summer. His re-training as a No.6 hasn’t been to everyone’s taste.

But, listening to Jones during the pre-Toulouse press conference today, you can see why Jurgen Klopp thinks the Argentine has the perfect skills to do the job.

“Mac Allister, how he protects the ball, is just… I’ve never seen before,” Jones explains.

“He can receive the ball and he does this thing where he sticks his bum out and you can’t take the ball form him. Just his experience, he knows when he’s going to get pressed and which way he moves.”

Jones raves about Mac Allister retention

Protecting the ball obviously isn’t the only skill needed to play as a defensive midfielder for Liverpool. But it is a big part of it.

The Reds usually have possession much more than they don’t have it. As a result, a holding midfielder needs to be something of a dictator of the play. Someone who can keep it and find the passes where necessary.

So with that in mind, Mac Allister does fit the mould in more ways than one.

No, he isn’t a Fabinho-type destroyer that Liverpool have been used to over the past five years. But the £35m man is someone who suits the Reds’ new style of play much more.

Klopp is seemingly turning Liverpool into a more possession based side. That isn’t to say that Fabinho couldn’t keep the ball, but it wasn’t his main job. The Brazilian was needed to break up counter-attacks when the Reds bombed forward.

Now that that is becoming less a feature of Liverpool’s game, a player like Mac Allister is possibly better suited.

That isn’t to say the 24-year-old will stay there long-term, only that as Jones points out, he’s got the tools to do the job effectively. Keep sticking that bum out, Alexis!