Q&AAlexis Mac Allister interview: Learning lessons, long-range goals and West Ham

Arne Slot's side are handling the rare feeling of heading into a fixture on the back of a defeat in the Premier League.

Mac Allister's stunning goal at Fulham last weekend gave the Reds an early lead before the hosts' fightback sent the division leaders to just their second top-flight loss of 2024-25.

The Argentina midfielder and his teammates are now looking to show a response at Anfield this Sunday to move a step closer to the title, with Graham Potter's Hammers standing in their way.

Ahead of the game, Liverpoolfc.com sat down with Mac Allister at the AXA Training Centre – read on for our interview with the No.10…

Alexis, obviously a disappointing result last weekend but with a full week in between there's plenty of time to get it out of the system…

Exactly. Plenty of time to analyse what happened the other day. I think it was quite clear. There's plenty of time to recover first and then to work thinking about West Ham. That's going to be a really tough game.

How much can you utilise these full seven days of preparation? You might have a chance to do things in training you weren't able to when the schedule was packed…

I think there are things you can do on and off the pitch. You can especially prepare in a better way physically because you have the time to rest and train. It was a really good week, so hopefully we can show what we are working on and we can get the three points.

Does it feel a bit strange having all this time, given how hectic most of the season has been?

It does feel weird, to be honest. We didn't want to be in this position, to be completely honest, because that means you're not playing Champions League or another cup. But it is what it is. I think this week, as I said, will help to train the things that we've done wrong, especially in the last game, and get prepared for the next one.

Not that you needed a reminder but the Fulham game really shows how you can't afford to let up your concentration for a second in the Premier League…

Exactly, because I don't think we played a bad game. I think it was just about those minutes, those mistakes that we made, and that can happen. At the end, it's football – you have to make decisions in a short space of time. But the good thing is that we have the mentality and the group to get up and go again on Sunday. What we want is to win football games and try to become champions.

Your goal last time out takes you one behind last season's total, which was seven. Is eclipsing that a target in your mind?

To be fair, I don't set any targets before the season. But I really like getting goals and assists and I feel like I can do it more often. It's nice, it's really nice to score but at the same time I know I have maybe other things to do. I would love to score more and assist more but I'm really happy with the way I'm helping the team as well.

Like that Fulham strike, a lot of your goals have been unbelievable efforts. Is that something you work hard on or is that just instinct? At Fulham it seemed as soon as you got the ball you were going to hit it…

Of course we work, we do some shooting and finishing. But as we said before, there wasn't time to train a lot, so it's not something that you train. At that moment it came to my mind and I just thought about shooting. At the end, it was nice because it was a good goal.

You've already played West Ham twice this season but they have a new manager this time around and there's a lot of quality in that squad. How challenging will it be?

I think West Ham is a team that has a lot of good players and now that they've changed the manager, they're a completely different team. So, we expect a really hard game. I know Graham Potter very well, so I know how his team wants to play. We expect a really tough game and hopefully we can get the three points.

You're back at home and there's only four more games at Anfield left this season. Is it a case of everyone needs to make the most of it and be at their best?

For sure. I think everyone knows and we don't have to say anything to the fans. That's really clear, they know it and they will make it special, like always. We expect them to be behind us in these upcoming games because the pressure is there and if we are all together it's going to be easier.