Darwin Nunez hailed Alexis Mac Allister after the Argentine’s impact from the bench in Liverpool’s comeback win over Southampton.
With Arne Slot deciding to rest key players, such as Mac Allister and Andy Robertson, Liverpool floundered against basement dwellers Southampton in the opening 45. And the Reds were duly punished when Will Smallbone scored a controversial opener on the stroke of half-time.
Slot, who watched from the stands amid his touchline ban, let the players feel his wrath at the interval before making a triple substitution. One of those to come on was Mac Allister. The midfielder has oftentimes been a rock in the heart of the Liverpool starting XI this season and his presence clearly had the desired impact.
Just six minutes into the second half Nunez scored an equalizer. The Uruguayan himself had a difficult first half – including being fairly lucky to not have been sent off – and was equally fortunate to survive the half-time cull. But he justified his boss’s decision by scoring and winning a penalty three minutes later.
Mohamed Salah converted from the spot to break yet another record and the rest was pretty much a formality. The Reds swarmed the Saints and won another penalty late on for, yes, Salah to convert once again.
Following his 45-minute performance, Mac Allister took to Instagram to post five pictures from the game. Nunez commented on the upload, “Que Jugador,” which translates to “What a player”. He wasn’t alone, Ryan Gravenberch replied with two flame emojis.
Nunez was replaced at 68 minutes and at fulltime Slot explained his decision to stick with the striker at half-time while equally praising Mac Allister.
“In the end I took him off because he was on yellow but I always hate the idea that if we need to score goals, to take off someone who can score a goal,” Slot said. “That’s why it wasn’t in my mind to take him off because I was already planning on after these three.
“If we don’t score a goal, Jots (Diogo Jota) needs to come in and we have to go even more offensive. With Cody (Cody Gakpo) being out, it wasn’t like we have that many attacking options left. So that is why I took a certain risk of keeping him on. A number nine who is on a yellow is different to Kostas. I took Kostas out for that reason, because he was on yellow.
“Second of all, of course I know Robbo (Andy Robertson) always creates something with his energy and with his mentality. Not only the team but also with the fans. And there is a reason why Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) is a World Cup winner. Because he always shows up when you need in terms of mentality, and that is definitely what he brought in the second half.”
