“Looking from the outside, an encouraging thing is that Brendan Rodgers had a pop at two or three players who had been signed for big money, Enrique, Downing and Henderson, and they have responded,” says McAllister.
“All of a sudden, three signings from a previous manager are starting to look like Liverpool players. They are showing a bit of form.
“Downing is starting to play well, he had a lovely assist against Norwich. Enrique is starting to win the manager over and Jordan Henderson was a young guy coming to the club at a tough time, and now he has got his confidence back.
“As much as Liverpool might need new players coming in, they have three players who looked as though they were heading out the door that have now shown themselves.”
When Henderson signed in at Anfield in June 2011, Gerrard suggested he could be the player to replace him as the driving force in Liverpool’s midfield.
It hasn’t quite worked out that way. But the grumbling among the support at Henderson being dropped to the bench for the recent trip to Manchester United underlined his growing stock.
“I think Jordan has a lot of similarities to me as a player,” says Gerrard. “He’s got a lot of energy and likes to get about the pitch and get his passing game going.
“I think he’s growing week by week. He has had a difficult start but I think what people forget is his age. He’s still a young lad.
“He’s made a huge move from his hometown club to Liverpool. Big expectation. So he has found it difficult to settle in, but I think, of late, he certainly deserves to be in the starting 11.
“In training the last couple of months, he’s been superb. He works hard every day and he’s a great lad so I’m really pleased for him.”
McAllister, though, is under no illusions who the main man will be for Rodgers’s side when they trek to chilly Boundary Park in their FA Cup fourth round tie on Sunday.
“I’ve been up to Anfield quite a few times this season and Liverpool haven’t always had the best results,” he says. “But every single time, Luis Suarez has been excellent.
“At times he has been a wee bit isolated and on his own, but the addition of Sturridge will be brilliant for him.
“I have got him in the top four or five in the world, he is that good. Some of the trickery and movement is superb. He is confident and a special, special player.
“He can do little tricks in inches that with other players you might think that was a bit lucky, but he does it so many times he can’t be.”
Paul Dickov’s Oldham, who were beaten 5-1 at Anfield in the FA Cup third round last season, are only four points clear of the npower League One relegation zone and have lost seven of their last nine games.
However, the solitary victory in that spell was an impressive one, a 3-2 triumph at Championship side Nottingham Forest that set up Sunday’s tie.
Liverpool then travel to Arsenal next Wednesday in the Premier League where victory will lift them above the Gunners to a season’s-best sixth place, before taking on champions Manchester City at Eastlands four days later.
Certainly, the next week or so will prove pivotal in shaping the remainder of the campaign for Rodgers. Another cliché, perhaps. But one that is again founded in truth.
