Alexis Mac Allister ranks Rodri, Moises Caicedo & Declan Rice as midfield opponents | OneFootball

Liverpool star Alexis Mac Allister has given his opinion on the best Premier League midfielder, but it differs from who he believes to be the hardest to play against.

During an interview for Saturday Social on Sky Sports, Mac Allister was asked to rank Arsenal's Declan Rice, Chelsea's Moises Caicedo and Manchester City's Rodri, collectively labelling them "really good players" as an easy starting point.

"The main thing I'm going to say here is physically, the hardest part against these players, I would put Caicedo first," Mac Allister explained.

"He is very complete, on and off the ball he's really, really good," the 2022 World Cup winner added, placing Rice second on his list, and Rodri in third.

"It doesn't mean that I don’t rate Rodri, it's the complete opposite, I think he earned the Ballon d'Or, for example. He's a fantastic player but he's not the hardest opponent because he's never on the ball. He always plays one or two touches, so you cannot even get near him. If you ask me who is the better player, I would say Rodri but the toughest player to play against is Moi Caicedo."

Moises Caicedo is the "toughest" to play against / Ryan Pierse/GettyImages

Caicedo and Mac Allister are former Brighton & Hove Albion teammates, both products of the club's excellent South American scouting network. They were very nearly reunited at Liverpool after Mac Allister had made the switch to Anfield early in the summer of 2023, with Caicedo then the subject of an accepted £111m bid from the Reds, until Chelsea gazumped the offer.

"I've shared a dressing room with Moi, fantastic player, really good physically," Mac Allister said. "I was really surprised when he went on loan to Belgium [Beerschot in 2021/22].

"I was really surprised because I was watching him in training and I felt like he was ready to play, but at that time they thought it was a good idea to send him on loan, he wanted that because he wanted to play as well. But I always thought that he was going to be amazing."