Slot told to drop Liverpool ‘bystander’ as his ‘legs have gone’ in stunning verdict

Former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant thinks Reds head coach Arne Slot needs to drop Alexis Mac Allister as it seems like his “legs have gone”.

Liverpool are having a poor season in the Premier League with Slot’s side currently six points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester United ahead of the Reds’ match against Sunderland on Wednesday night.

A number of players have been off form this term but some drop offs have been more noticable than others with Mac Allister earning a place in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year last campaign.

Mac Allister was singled out against Manchester City at the weekend for a poor performance that saw him take some blame for Bernardo Silva’s equaliser, before being accused of ball-watching in the lead up to the penalty incident, which Erling Haaland converted.

And now Pennant thinks Slot should be thinking seriously about dropping Mac Allister for their match against Sunderland after his recent poor displays.

Pennant told talkSPORT: “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.

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“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 and that’s what I touched on, it was an observation.”

When asked if the Argentina international would benefit from coming out of the Liverpool team, Pennant added:  “Sometimes it could be as simple as that.

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“You need to rest and you need your mind to rest and reset and then you come back the player that you were.

“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.

“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.”