Alexis Mac Allister has offered a blunt assessment of Liverpool\u2019s recent past, saying \u201csomething wasn\u2019t right\u201d in the squad under Arne Slot before praising the impact of the Dutchman\u2019s successor, Andoni Iraola, for correcting it.<\/p>\n
Liverpool began the 2025-26 campaign strongly enough to disguise deeper problems, but those issues were closely tied to the tragic death of Diogo Jota the previous summer. The team\u2019s form then unravelled badly, eventually producing their worst run of results since the rationing period in the United Kingdom after the Second World War.<\/p>\n
Even after repeatedly insisting his job was secure, Slot was still dismissed once he had done enough to secure Champions League qualification. Iraola, who had finished one place behind Liverpool with Bournemouth on far fewer resources, was appointed soon afterwards.<\/p>\n
The transition has not been seamless. Liverpool have moved away from the control-first approach of the previous regime and towards the more chaotic style associated with Iraola. The progress has not followed a straight line, but the overall trend has been upwards.<\/p>\n
Mac Allister underlined that change after scoring twice in Tuesday\u2019s 4-3 Champions League win over Villarreal. \u201cSomething wasn\u2019t right in the group and this manager changed it,\u201d he told Amazon Prime. \u201cThe way we play is different, I don\u2019t like to compare,\u201d he added, while making a fairly stark comparison.<\/p>\n
Iraola himself acknowledged there were issues to address when he arrived. \u201cWhen I came here, the owners told me everything is not perfect,\u201d he admitted.<\/p>\n
Defensive structure had clearly been one of the main concerns. Liverpool\u2019s total of 53 Premier League goals conceded was their worst in the competition since 1993-94.<\/p>\n
Iraola\u2019s answer has been a major tactical overhaul. Instead of organising Liverpool around set zones within a defined shape, he has asked them to press opponents directly in a man-to-man system.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow it\u2019s more man-to-man,\u201d Mac Allister explained. \u201cYou have to communicate less. Last year, it was more like a zonal thing. I like both. In the national team, we do zonal and it works. It\u2019s about us taking the responsibility. It\u2019s one of the changes. Now it\u2019s easier, you think less but run more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mac Allister says Liverpool were off under Slot as Iraola\u2019s man-to-man reset takes hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1647,175],"tags":[1836,1162,1047],"class_list":["post-21872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-champions-league","category-liverpool","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}