Wait for it, the strong investment is beginning to pay off at Liverpool

One of the strangest aspects of football fandom is the way many supporters expect newly signed players to have an immediate impact, as if relocating for a new job and delivering your best from day one is easy. Many people need a period of adjustment following a move, whatever their line of work happens to be.

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When a player is also taking up a slightly different position to that which they previously occupied, the likelihood is that it will take them longer still to reach their peak. Liverpool and its supporters appear to be seeing this with £35m summer signing Alexis Mac Allister. The Argentine World Cup winner was often found in the double pivot at the midfield base of Brighton’s 4-2-3-1 formation last term, but that is not the same as the single holding role he has been asked to play by Jürgen Klopp. Mac Allister has been superb in the Reds’ last two league games and one aspect of his performances shows how he has replicated a strength of his predecessor Fabinho and moved it up a level.

We’re here to talk about his tackling. Against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium, Liverpool’s number 10 made nine tackles, the joint most any player from the club has recorded in the last eight seasons of Premier League football. Mac Allister followed that up with eight in the 4-1 win over Chelsea, meaning he holds the top two tackling totals for a Liverpool man in the league across the last three campaigns.

Of the two, his tally against Bournemouth is markedly more impressive as the Reds had 60 per cent of the possession in that game, compared with 50 at Anfield last time out. Adjusting his figure to account for the difference implies he would have made 13 tackles in the Chelsea match. Fabinho is the defensive midfielder against whom Liverpool players in the position are likely to be measured against for quite some time. At his best, the Brazilian was a master at snuffing out danger and halting opposition attacks in their tracks.

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The return of Alexis Mac Allister

That it has begun occurring could be a tactical choice from Klopp; just because Mac Allister has been doing this does not mean that Fabinho could not have also done so at his peak. But he certainly couldn’t now, and it appears the Reds’ current defensive midfielder has added wider coverage to the tackling from that role. Mac Allister's adaptation period may be complete.