Alexis Mac Allister drops Liverpool team news hint ahead of Everton Merseyside derby

Alexis Mac Allister has posted a cryptic message on social media ahead of this afternoon's Merseyside derby. Liverpool will take on Everton at Anfield as Arne Slot'sside look to maintain their perfect start to the campaign.

On Wednesday evening, the Reds secured a dramatic late victory over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. Virgil van Dijk struck in the final moments of stoppage time, nodding the ball through a swarm of players to beat Jan Oblak.

The Toffees have enjoyed a week on the training pitches at Finch Farm following their goalless affair with Aston Villa. Everton have remained unbeaten since their opening-day defeat to Leeds United, claiming two victories and a draw.

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Mac Allister has shared a pre-match preview graphic of the Merseyside derby on his Instagram story. Usually, this indicates that the 26-year-old midfielder will feature in some capacity.

Dominik Szoboszlai followed suit, suggesting he will also start against David Moyes' side. Speaking ahead of this afternoon's encounter, Slot reflected on Liverpool's 'special' derby with Everton.

The Reds manager said: "When we faced them last season, they had a very good spell as well – and it wasn't a spell because they just kept on going with that and into this season again also.

"I think they've made some good signings and one of them is of course a player on loan who was worth £100m in the past, someone paid £100m for him and he is doing so well for them, Jack Grealish. So, a good team."

Slot added: "Indeed, there is rivalry, but what I also liked and I want to emphasise in this moment as well is what they did when Diogo [Jota] passed away, coming to Anfield, being there, and of course they showed their respect from sporting director to sporting director and all these kind of things.

"So, in these moments of time it's so nice to see that in those tragedies the rivalry is still there but the respect towards both is also there. So yeah, looking forward to the game tomorrow because every Anfield game is special but this derby is even more special."

When asked whether he would consider deploying Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike as a front two, Slot replied: "I consider, of course, because you consider many things, and it depends always on how well they are doing, so if both of them are in the best form of their life, you would even consider it more, playing them together.

"But it's also clear that we have a certain structure, which has mainly been 4-3-3 [and] playing with three midfielders, but the amount of times we have, at the end phase of the game, played with two nines, that has happened quite a lot as well.

"Hugo can indeed also play from the left differently from Cody [Gakpo] or Rio [Ngumoha] and that's the good thing about our squad, we have multiple options. But first of all they all have to stay fit to have these options and if some of them are not fit then we might have to use them both in a 4-4-2.

"That all depends on the form of them and how many players we have available. All of them are fit now and I think I can maybe choose between 21 players, so that's quite normal. It's not that it's far too much."

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