Explained: Why £35m signing Alexis Mac Allister was ‘relieved’ to be substituted at half-time by Liverpool in 3-1 win over Wolves

The Merseyside giants headed into the interval at Molineux trailing 1-0 and with a spark needing to be found in the second 45 minutes. The decision was taken not to send World Cup winner Mac Allister out for the second-half, with Colombian winger Luis Diaz taking his place.

Argentina international Mac Allister joined Liverpool for £35 million ($43m) over the summer and is still finding his feet in new surroundings. He was also involved with his country during the latest break in domestic action, with oxygen tubes required ahead of a World Cup qualifier against Bolivia that was played at extremely high altitude.

Mac Allister was feeling the effects of that outing when returning to Premier League action, with Klopp telling reporters of the decision to replace the South American against Wolves: “He was done. Yellow card and he was exhausted in the first-half already. We know how good Alexis is, in the first half his decision-making... we saw during the week when he had the oxygen mask on, I thought a couple of times they should have left it on a little bit longer – that would have helped maybe! It was just tough. When you’re in a game like this, it’s pretty likely you’ll come to a challenge a bit too late and then you have the second yellow and that’s it. That’s all. He had good moments in the first half, but he had some other moments as well and you could see them. He was not really disappointed when we took him off. I think he was rather relieved.”

Mac Allister has taken in five appearances for Liverpool, having previously thrived in English football at Brighton, and is still looking for his first goal and assist for his new employers. The Reds are due to be back in action on Thursday when opening their 2023-24 Europa League campaign away at Austrian side LASK.