Liverpool star breaks eight year record to confirm a new era in Jurgen Klopp's midfield

Liverpool earned a brilliant 4-0 victory over Bournemouth and once again stamped their authority in the title race after going five points clear, but one player stood out in particular.

While Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley, Ibrahim Konate and Darwin Nunez took most of the plaudits, there was another that Jurgen Klopp spoke about following the game - as he complimented a 'sensational' performance, “Thank you for mentioning that! Sometimes people forget that because in the 2nd half we scored the goals. Absolutely exceptional performance. He is a really good footballer. Super important for us.” That player was Alexis Mac Allister. Across his display at the base of Liverpool's midfield, he combined a gentle mix of technical quality with aggressiveness to completely dominate the Cherries. His figures showed a 88% pass accuracy, 5/9 Accurate long passes, four chances created, three interceptions, a stunning 15 recoveries and 14 duels won in total.

However, one stat stood out above all else. He won a mammoth nine tackles, out of 14 attempts, which according to Squawka is a club Premier League record across the past eight seasons. No Liverpool player has made more tackles in a Premier League game in the last eight seasons than Mac Allister against Bournemouth.

Naturally, his position has been a point of debate since the summer; many expected a more natural Fabinho-like replacement to come in and for the former Brighton midfielder to play in a more advanced role.

Of course, he used to have the enigmatic and tough-tackling Moises Caicedo alongside him at Brighton meaning that both of them could interchange and cover each other and Klopp has given him the same environment in which to recreate the form seen at his old club. Whereas Fabinho's game was more fixated on screening and denying attackers at source and keeping his passing mostly simple, with the help of two other hard-working midfielders, this midfield we are seeing now is more technical and works in a different, and perhaps even more effective, way.

It isn't about rekindling what they had, it's about what strengths this particular group of new midfielders have which is differs from the era of Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum and others. Yet, it hasn't lost any of it's 'bite' that we saw in the past and it operates with fit, strong and energetic figures who can all play and Mac Allister is showing exactly why he was chosen to play in a similar role in a World Cup final. The Fabinho era is over and the Mac Allister era has certainly started.