Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister was slightly fortunate to finish the first half of Sunday’s game against Burnley following an ugly studs-to-ankle tackle by Lesley Ugochukwu that somehow only saw the Burnley man assessed a yellow card.
Having played on until the break, though, manager Arne Slot then decided to remove the player as a precaution at the half. Mac Allister had wanted to continue, but it was clear he had felt the tackle, and Slot explained his thinking after the match.
“He missed
a lot of pre-season, so he is only ready for one game a week,” Slot noted. “He doesn’t have the right build-up towards playing three games a week for 90 minutes, so it was always sure today that I would take him off after 60 minutes.
“I had already made one substitution, so if I then take him off at 60 minutes that would be my second one. So that combined with the fact the tackle was a tackle he felt—and I am not surprised he felt that tackle—it was a combination of both.
“He said it was good enough to go on, though he limped a lot—but that was more his mentality I think than it was he could actually perform at his best for 15 minutes more. So it was him being injured and me not wanting to lose the second substitution.”
Depending on how Mac Allister’s ankle recovers over the next day or two will now determine whether he starts against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, but his removal at the half on Sunday should hopefully at least improve the chances of that.
