Pennant Calls for Mac Allister to Be Dropped as Midfielder Struggles Mount

Jermaine Pennant reckons Arne Slot ought to seriously consider leaving Alexis Mac Allister out of the side, with the former Reds winger convinced that the midfielder's physical condition has deteriorated markedly.

Liverpool find themselves in a precarious position in the Premier League table, sitting six points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester United heading into Wednesday's clash with Sunderland. The campaign has been a disappointment by Merseyside standards, and individual performances have been equally inconsistent.

Mac Allister's downturn has been particularly acute. Last season he earned selection in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year, yet this term he's become a shadow of that form. His display against Manchester City at the weekend proved especially troubling—Pennant singled him out for contributing to both Bernardo Silva's leveller and the subsequent penalty that Erling Haaland dispatched, with the Argentine accused of poor positioning and ball-watching at crucial moments.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Pennant didn't mince words: "I was watching the game and I was frustrated and I tweeted, I don't really tweet that much, but I was angry. It was constructive angry."

He elaborated on his assessment: "Basically what I touched on was, 'Listen, we love you [Mac Allister], you've been a great player for Liverpool, you've been a great player, you are a great player, you were in the Team of the Season. I touched on that after your injury in pre-season, you've come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone. In that [City] game, he was literally a bystander, he didn't really get into it at all."

When pressed on whether a spell on the bench might help, Pennant suggested a tactical withdrawal could work wonders for both mind and body. "Sometimes it could be as simple as that," he explained. "You need to rest and you need your mind to rest and reset and then you come back the player that you were."

The former Liverpool man acknowledged the psychological toll that comes with underperforming at a club of Liverpool's magnitude. "It is demanding and when the team isn't flourishing and things aren't going well, that's when it can get really punishing, not only on your body, but on your mind as well," Pennant noted.

He continued: "You see these comments, you're hearing criticism. There's always talk about it because you're Liverpool and you're in the spotlight and everyone's human and you've got feelings so sometimes it weighs on your mind. You have times when you're fighting with your head. You'd read or hear comments or criticism of how you're playing. Before a game, you might say 'I'm going to do this differently'. So you're arguing with yourself."