Brighton’s struggle to replace Alexis Mac Allister – what is the solution?

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When Alexis Mac Allister returns to the Amex Stadium on Monday night as a Premier League champion for Liverpool, it will be a reminder of the midfield strength Brighton & Hove Albion had when they reached Europe for the first time two seasons ago.

The Argentine 2022 World Cup winner’s companion in the engine room under former head coach Robert De Zerbi was Moises Caicedo. The Ecuadorian was recently voted as player of the season and players’ player of the season at Chelsea.

The partnership between the South Americans enabled De Zerbi to use Pascal Gross in a hybrid right-back role, drifting into midfield or further forward.

Mac Allister has been an integral part of Liverpool’s title success under Arne Slot, featuring in 35 of 36 games as a central midfielder or in a deeper berth, registering five goals and five assists.

“(He’s a) very important player,” Slot told reporters before Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat at Chelsea this month. “Game intelligence, so comfortable on the ball, but what makes him even more special to me is, normally players that have so much game inside and are so comfortable on the ball are not as aggressive and intense without the ball.

“He is one of the few players in the world who combines this great game intelligence, great on the ball, but (with) a tenacity without the ball. In our midfield, he stands out in terms of tenacity.”

Mac Allister after winning the Premier League title in April (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Mac Allister, 26, moved to Liverpool for a fee of around £45million ($60m), including add-ons, in June 2023. Caicedo, 23, joined Chelsea two months later for a British record package deal worth £115m. The financial benefits to Brighton were huge — they paid £8m for Mac Allister from Argentinos Juniors in January 2019 and £3m for Caicedo from Independiente del Valle in January 2021.

The deals also married with Brighton’s global recruitment model of attracting young players via a clear and potentially speedy pathway into the first team, with an expectation of not standing in the way of further career progression at the right price and in the right circumstances. Mac Allister had just turned 20 when he signed, while Caicedo was 19.

Catering for the loss of two high-quality performers was always going to be a stiff challenge. Carlos Baleba was signed from French club Lille for £26m in August 2023, with the idea that the then-19-year-old would develop into the replacement of the deep-lying Caicedo.

Baleba has grown into a key figure under head coach Fabian Hurzeler. Voted the club’s young player of the season by supporters, he has made the joint-second-most appearances (38, tied with goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen) across all competitions in the squad behind Kaoru Mitoma (39). Hurzeler described Baleba as a “quick learner” with “unbelievable potential” and the “physical attributes to be a really good Premier League player” during his press conference before the 21-year-old Cameroon international made his 50th start for the club in a 1-1 home draw with Newcastle United this month.

It has been harder to compensate for the all-round attributes of Mac Allister, heightened by the departures last summer of Gross to Borussia Dortmund and (to a lesser extent) of Billy Gilmour to Napoli. Among their many qualities, Mac Allister and Gross both specialised in set pieces.

Nine of Mac Allister’s 16 league goals in 98 appearances for Brighton were penalties or free kicks, plus he contributed five assists. Gross’s assist stats were remarkable, 45 in 228 appearances which included seven out of 30 goals from the spot or free-kicks. Gilmour did not score and had two assists in 46 outings.

An attempt to further redress the midfield balance was made during last summer’s unprecedented outlay of almost £200m on nine new signings. They included central midfielders Mats Wieffer and Matt O’Riley, each bought for £25m from Feyenoord and Celtic respectively. It has not panned out that way. Wieffer, 25, and O’Riley, 24, have struggled to command a regular place amid injury problems. They have both had runs in the team in recent matches by playing out of their first-choice positions — Wieffer at right-back and O’Riley at No 10.

Hurzeler began the opening three league games of the campaign with James Milner in midfield. He has been left without the versatile 39-year-old since a hamstring injury sustained in a 1-1 draw at Arsenal in August required surgery. The German has relied heavily instead on 21-year-old Yasin Ayari or homegrown 20-year-old Jack Hinshelwood in a double pivot with Baleba.

Hinshelwood has made 24 Premier League appearances for Brighton this season (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

The emergence of Ayari has been a surprise following undistinguished loan spells in the Championship with Coventry City and Blackburn Rovers last season. He has been used on 37 occasions across all competitions by Hurzeler. That puts the Sweden international just behind Mitoma, Baleba and Verbruggen and level with Dutch central defender Jan Paul van Hecke, the fans’ and players’ player of the season.

“I don’t know why, but every time I speak about Yasin I get goosebumps,” Hurzeler told reporters before leaving Ayari out of the starting line-up for the draw against Newcastle. “Because if you work hard, if you have the right intrinsic motivation, if you come to the training ground and try to be the best version of yourself every day, then you have the chance to achieve everything in your life.

“Yasin is an unbelievable example. He was there from the first day and he showed a conviction that he wants to be part of this team. He was not getting attention from myself with his words, he was getting my attention from the whole staff and players with his behaviour. And he was unbelievably resilient and intense in every training session.

“I couldn’t say one training session where he was not training on the highest level or not doing individual work afterwards. I can’t say one week where he was not asking for individual analysis after the game. So it’s no surprise he has made this development because of the personality he showed.”

Hurzeler’s midfield choices expanded again with the £11m capture in the January transfer window of Paraguay international Diego Gomez from MLS club Inter Miami. The 22-year-old has been limited to four league starts as he settles into his new surroundings.

“I always emphasise the word consistency and building connections,” Hurzeler told The Athletic during his press conference for Liverpool’s visit. “It was one part of this season that we’ve missed. We haven’t been able to build consistency in our starting XI.

“Then it is also not so easy for players to build an understanding on the pitch, but we tried hard to find solutions. Our midfielders are quite young, 20, 22, 23. They all made their own experiences during the season, made mistakes, learnt from it. I saw players who really developed, Yasin, Carlos Baleba, Jack Hinshelwood, Diego Gomez, who is coming in new. It is impressive how they have performed and worked together.”

It will be a struggle to reach a situation where the midfield twosome is as classy as Mac Allister and Caicedo, but it is worth remembering that Caicedo struggled initially after moving to Chelsea. The scope for Wieffer, O’Riley and Gomez to improve in their second seasons at Brighton provides hope of bridging the gap.

(Top photo: Yasin Ayari by Mike Hewitt via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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