25 May 2023 13:44:33
Mac Allister is certainly a good player, very tidy, replaces Gini, but I don't understand the hype, (whether some people look at his goal return without realising how many are penalties?) I don't remember people being this excited about signing Gini, and although he may replace Hendo in the starting XI I don't see him having the same leadership impact on the players around him.

I also think a Gini type player isn't enough now, we had Gini when the rest of the squad was good enough to compete, a front 3 that understood each other's game and worked well together, a back line orchestrated by a hungry Van Djik with an excellent Fab in front to protect them, I don't think we have any of those things now, and so rather than a Bellingham calibre player to push the squad back up to title challengers I think Mac Allister is a really good player for a team challenging for fourth, which we will likely be now in my opinion.

1.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 14:19:13
It’s a start mate. Judgment can only be made at the start on the season.

2.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 14:20:31
Mc Allister is a very good player. But he alone won’t win the league for us. We need a top class DM and a proper ball winner to complement him.

3.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 14:31:50
Danish king we haven't finished the season yet stop panicking.

4.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 14:38:08
Hendo and Milners leadership gets mentioned a lot and how important it is but nothing seems to be mentioned about the amount of times we’ve looked leaderless and poor on the pitch this season with them.

This isn’t a bashing of Hendo as I definitely see a place for him in next years squad and side but he should be getting picked on performances like the rest of the squad.

5.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 14:57:57
I hope we do get McAllister he's shown that he's a good player. As for the other players we need I'm expecting a surprise signing, bit of a curve ball as the allegedly new sporting director is apparently a specialist in the German market so here's hoping he can find a gem from the bundesliga.

6.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 15:00:28
I've not seen enough of him play to have a decent opinion of my own but if you are correct and he is more of a "cog in the wheel" type of player rather than a game changer, then that's more reason why I would struggle with Mac Allister + Mount for the same/ more money as we could have got Bellingham for.

Unless we're using the "Bellingham money" for two players who can come in and make a really big impact and elevate the rest of the team and everything around them, then I would rather have one Bellingham than two lesser players.

Any Brightonians here with an opinion on Mac Allister? I remember when we were after van Dijk, a Saints season-ticket holder who I know said to me "he's an absolute Rolls Royce and will transform your back four".

7.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 15:15:38
I think he’s a brilliant player who’s going to do well for us.

8.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 15:31:59
People weren't excited about Gini because they didn't know how good he was going to be beforehand. I would have been very excited if I did.

9.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 15:55:41
He has 6 non-penalty goals playing as a box to box midfielder in a decent team. (12 in total with his penalties) .

For context our highest scorers are Jones and Elliott with 3 from midfield (Elliott does have 2 more that came whilst playing RW in the FA Cup) .

Henderson, Thiago, Keita, Fabinho, Arthur and Milner combined have ZERO goals. Bajcetic has 1. Ox has scored 1 but almost all his appearances including the one he scored in he played in the front 3.

So if you take away MacAllisters 6 penalty goals, yes he does only have 6 goals. However i'd like to think we are a better team and yet our NINE midfielders have 7 goals combined this season; 3 for Elliott, 3 for Jones and 1 for Bajcetic. All of a sudden MacAllisters 6 doesn't look too shabby.

Keep in mind we had European football as well so our midfielders had far more games to score in. So a better way of looking at it, is our midfielders made 257 combined appearances and scored 7 combined goals (roughly 1 in 37). MacAllister has 6 non-penalty goals in 39 games (roughly 1 in 7).

As a side note, what is wrong with him scoring penalties? Salah isn't getting any younger and has missed at least 2 this season off the top of my head. Milner is leaving the club. It can't hurt to have another reliable penalty taker at the club.

So with all due respect Scholes, i think the only person confused about how MacAllisters goalscoring stacks up, is you ??‍♂️.

10.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 16:26:48
Why is everyone wanting world beaters to come in as the only way we can compete?

We’ve shown (yet again) in the last couple of months that we are the only team in the league other than City that are capable of going on a long run of wins.

I expect us to be a completely different beast next season even if we sign nobody in the summer.

Nunez settled in with a full preseason, Gakpo settled in, Konate fit and a more settled, Bajcetic fit, Curtis finally showing what he can do, Elliott and Carvalho making an impact with another years experience.

We’ve had a poor season but we’ve finished it extremely well which bodes very well for next season and we will make signings to improve what we have too.

We are in better shape than some here seem to think.

11.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 16:46:24
Mac allaister is nothing like Gini Wijnaldum. They are just not comparable players.

I view Mac allaister more of a Thiago type player. Maybe a slightly more advanced positionally like Thiago was in his younger days. Maybe not quite as technical as Thiago but far more robust thankfully. Mac Allaisters passing is unreal. He could open the play up even if his pass is not the final assist. He will make us a more dangerous team.

With Argentina he was pressing everywhere. With Brighton, he doesn't seem to press as much. Hope he can replicate his Argentina style over the course of a season.

I'd think he will be unbelievably successful with 2 mobile players alongside him as he is not overly fast. Not slow but not fast. From the current bunch I'd be looking at Arnold, Jones and Bajectic. I'd like to buy another one. I watch a Southampton game recently and I was unbelievably impressed with Lavia. He is strongly in my thoughts now.

Let's see what happens.

12.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 18:11:20
I think Mac Alister would get a lot of goals in this Liverpool team, he’s a winner.
Of course he’s not perfect and I think there are other types of midfielders that we need their qualities, way More than we need Macs.
Rather than Gini or Thiago I see him as a much better Ox. But he doesn’t replace Henderson of 5 years ago, that’s the kind of energy we need, relentless.

13.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 17:18:27
If we signed a dog some people would be happy.

14.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 18:44:26
I'm not excited but give the lad a chance. He's not even signed yet!

15.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 18:50:48
I don’t think we should compare any player that may sign for us to Bellingham. He is an exceptional player and exceptionally expensive for good reason.

If we use him as the yardstick to judge all our transfers we will be setting the new lads up to fail.

We can still have a good summer and sign good players that make the side much better without Bellingham.

16.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 19:25:31
I agree with your assessment, Davey Sulls. He is a very good player but we need to bring in other players in midfield to play with and around him.

17.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 20:29:32
I think the idea is to try to fit 4 of Diaz, Salah, Gakpo, Nunez, Jota into the majority of games next season.
If so we need 2 exceptional defensive midfielders.

Assuming Fab can regain his form, we need another of his ilk. Not sure who that is but I don’t think it’s Mac Allister, Neves, Caciedo, Mount.

Maybe Neuhaus, previously linked but poor few seasons?
For me Tchoumani would be perfect, but would we revisit after failing last year?

18.) 25 May 2023
25 May 2023 20:58:51
On August 5 last year, the first day of the new Premier League season, Sky Sports News revealed their “summer transfer window XI”, a line-up of the best buys of the summer as voted for by their viewers.

It had Fulham’s Bernd Leno in goal, Newcastle United’s Sven Botman in central defence and Manchester United’s Christian Eriksen in midfield — no complaints there — but beyond that it went rather awry: Djed Spence, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ivan Perisic, Yves Bissouma, Philippe Coutinho, Richarlison, Darwin Nunez, Raheem Sterling — none of whom has made anything like the impact imagined at the time.

19.) 26 May 2023
26 May 2023 01:04:57
@Solid, all that shows is that ex-footballers have no idea about other players or how to put decent teams together. It really, really isn’t just about finding the most expensive player for each position and sending them out onto the pitch.

A number of people on here shouting for Mac Alister / Caicedo were the ones shouting for Bissouma last year ….

20.) 26 May 2023
26 May 2023 10:04:23
WDW, that is very true. I saw ian Graham said that there is only marginally over 50% chance that any signing will work out.
People bang on about Ugarte after one decent season there, similarly re Caicedo. Both could flop for different reasons, whilst Lavia at 40m could end up being the best pick of the 3, which is who I'd back.
Its a mine-field, which is why City/ Chelski style spending is absolutely ridiculous.

Accepting that LFC may be perpetual also-rans to City with the odd victory may be part of being a reds fan in this unbalanced day and age. As long as FFP is not implemented, we will be looking for best value, lowest risk signings, especially after the Naby debacle.