Jurgen Klopp admits he 'didn't look' for Alexis Mac Allister's best position

Jurgen Klopp has claimed that Alexis Mac Allister is too young to know his best position just yet.

Seen as one of the bargain signings of the summer, Alexis Mac Allister arrived at Liverpool from Brighton in a £35m deal, as part of the Reds' midfield makeover.

The 24-year-old built a reputation as one of the Premier League's best young engine-room operators with the Seagulls, scoring ten goals and registering two assist in the Premier League in 2022/23.

The Argentine World Cup winner has been thrown in at the deep end with his new club, starting each of the Reds' seven Premier League fixtures in 2023/24 so far.

However, he has mostly been used as Klopp's deepest-lying midfielder in a more restricted role creatively.

While Mac Allister has largely performed well, there has been debate about his long-term role in order to see the best of his talents.

Speaking ahead of Liverpool clash with Mac Allister's old club Brighton, Klopp called the former Boca Juniors star 'fantastic' but refused to pigeon-hole him to one position.

"We didn’t even look for his best position yet, we just use him," Klopp said, via Liverpoolfc.com.

"He’s a fantastic player. I love everything about him, super-smart, tactically and off the pitch as well. So that’s really, really nice to work with him.

"If we as a team defend well, he can play definitely the six, definitely. Did I know that before? I had a guess, but I was not sure because I didn’t know exactly how all the other boys will do defending and because we defend more compact and better than we did in our bad phases last year.

"We have small spaces and then it’s really, really good because he sees the situations really well, and from there we have an extra footballer on the pitch and it’s really cool.

"But best position, he’s too young for me to know it already, he’s a midfielder, I can tell you that, he’s a midfielder – and I’m happy about having him."

Mac Allister appears to have earned Klopp's favour already at Liverpool. Speaking last month, the Reds' number 10 admitted he has been given the nickname 'Klopp's son' by his teammates because of the manager's preference for the midfielder.

"Many of my teammates tease me because they say that [Klopp] is my dad now. The relationship with him is perfect, he is a very charismatic person, who always tries to be close to the players," Mac Allister said.

"The last game we returned from the national team I was the only South American who started; well, Ali also did, but he had not played in Brazil. Lucho [Diaz] and Darwin were on the bench.

"Then they told me that he is my dad, that he can’t take me out, that I had played all the games and so they drove me crazy!"