Report: Liverpool star set to miss the start of the season | OneFootball

Alexis Mac Allister World Cup Form Leaves Liverpool Facing Early Season Concern

Alexis Mac Allister has done what elite players do. He has responded to a poor club season by producing on the biggest international stage. For Argentina, he looks authoritative, decisive and central to everything good. For Liverpool, that is both encouraging and inconvenient.

As reported by BBC Sport, Mac Allister has become a key figure again for the world champions, scoring in Argentina’s 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland and underlining why he remains so highly valued. This follows a difficult 2025-26 season at Anfield, when his form fluctuated badly as Liverpool slumped to fifth in the Premier League and Arne Slot lost his job on May 30 2026.

There is no contradiction here. International football is about role clarity, chemistry and rhythm. With Argentina, Mac Allister has all three. At Liverpool last season, too often he had none of them. The result was a midfielder who looked short of authority one week and highly polished the next.

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Argentina Form Meets Liverpool Reality

The bigger issue for Liverpool is timing. Argentina face England in the World Cup semi-final and, whatever happens, Mac Allister will remain in the United States until the weekend for either the final or the third-place play-off. Under FIFA rules, he must then receive at least three weeks of rest.

That leaves Andoni Iraola with a very obvious problem at the start of his Liverpool reign. There is, according to the report, a strong chance Mac Allister will not be ready for the opening weeks of the 2026-27 Premier League season. Liverpool begin away at Newcastle United on Sunday, August 23, before fixtures against Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town.

Andoni Iraola Faces Midfield Puzzle

For a new head coach, this matters. Iraola needs early traction, and midfield is where systems either settle quickly or collapse into compromise. Mac Allister is one of Liverpool’s few genuine controllers, a player capable of setting tempo and linking phases cleanly. If he misses the opening stretch, Liverpool lose more than a name on the teamsheet. They lose structure.

There is also a wider point. Mac Allister’s honours list already tells you what level he operates at, World Cup, Copa America, Premier League title. His run of 12 wins in 12 World Cup appearances says plenty too. Liverpool are dealing with a player of proven pedigree, but pedigree does not solve August scheduling.

Iraola’s first return to Bournemouth comes on September 19, with Manchester City and Arsenal waiting at Anfield in October. Liverpool would prefer Mac Allister to be fully reset rather than rushed back. That is sensible. It is also risky, because early dropped points tend to linger.

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From a worried Liverpool supporter’s perspective, this is exactly the sort of update that raises the blood pressure. Nobody doubts Mac Allister’s class. In fact, that is the problem. He is one of the few midfielders in this squad who can calm a game down, keep the ball moving and stop chaos taking over. If he is absent at the start, Liverpool could look disjointed again.

Iraola walks into a club that already needs stability after a messy season. His first weeks are supposed to be about establishing control, drilling patterns and giving supporters a reason to believe the reset will work. Missing Mac Allister weakens that straight away. Newcastle away is not forgiving, and even matches that look kinder on paper can become awkward if your midfield lacks balance.

There is also a familiar frustration here. Liverpool always seem to collect these awkward pre-season complications, injuries, fatigue, tournaments, delayed returns. You can call it bad luck, but eventually the squad has to be robust enough to absorb it. If it cannot, then the planning has not been good enough.

The obvious answer is not to rush him. That would be foolish. But supporters will still worry, because early-season points count the same as April points, and Liverpool have a habit of making life harder for themselves than it needs to be.

Source: BBC Sport