Ben Foster says £35m Liverpool player failed to do his ‘big job’ vs Man City

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Liverpool were excellent during Sunday’s draw with Manchester City and were unlucky not to claim all three points.

There were some huge displays from those in red, with Virgil van Dijk lauded for putting in possibly his best game for the club. Alexis Mac Allister was another who deserved praise. The Argentine’s nerveless penalty the cherry on top of a wonderful all-round performance.

However, Mac Allister’s showing wasn’t all good. The £35m man was slow to react to Nathan Ake’s blocking from a first-half corner, which allowed John Stones to nip in and put City ahead. And speaking on his Cycling GK podcast, former England goalkeeper Ben Foster claims that Mac Allister didn’t do his job at the front post.

“Mac Allister has to take a lot of responsibility here, a lot of responsibility,” Foster says. “If you’re that Liverpool set-piece coach and you’re looking at how you defend corners and free-kicks like that, Mac Allister has got a big job. That front post base, it’s a big job. You’re the first point of contact, you’re the one looking to clear it, you cannot let anybody move you out of the way.

“He wasn’t switched on quick enough, he let the ball get played in quickly, he was just sort of looking around still. When you’re that front post guy you have to be good to go, especially when Kevin De Bruyne’s on the ball.

“It’s minute details but that’s the difference between a goal and not a goal.”

Mac Allister takes blame for City goal

This feels a little harsh from Foster. Yes, Mac Allister was the Liverpool player Ake blocked off, but sometimes you just have to say ‘fair play.’

There’s really not much more Liverpool’s No.10 could have done. Had he got in-front of the City man, he could have intercepted and cleared De Bruyne’s clever corner, thus preventing a goal.

But if football were that easy, then everyone would be playing it. It was obviously pre-planned from Ake, De Bruyne and Stones and caught the Reds cold.

For Mac Allister to read that, react and manage to wrestle Ake out of the way would have been something indeed. Not to mention the Argentina international would have ran the very real risk of giving away a penalty.

City are quite possibly the best team in the world at the moment. At times you’re going to get caught out. That it was the only time Liverpool really did during the game is testament to them.

If you are going to pick holes in it though, then Mac Allister is the obvious one to point out. However, we’d argue that throughout the whole thing, Darwin Nunez is arguably more culpable.

Nunez is the man being tasked with looking after Stones. The striker follows the City man back towards the goal, but just doesn’t do so with enough urgency.

From there, there was only one outcome. Caoimhin Kelleher did his best, but Stones bundled it in. Clever and in many respects unavoidable. You can bet Mac Allister will be watching out for this next time out, though.