Welsh Open 2024: Mark Allen 'getting more consistent' having made 'massive adjustment', says Alan McManus
Published 16/02/2024 at 14:57 GMT
Mark Allen has enjoyed a stellar couple of years, having won the UK Championship and retained his Northern Ireland Open title last season. This term, he has added the Shootout to his CV, and Eurosport's Alan McManus believes the Northern Irishman is now "getting more consistent" having made a "massive adjustment" to his playing style. Allen faces John Higgins in the Welsh Open quarter-final.
Allen 'getting more consistent' having made 'massive adjustment' to style, says McManus
Video credit: TNT Sports
Alan McManus believes Mark Allen is now growing more consistent with his game having made a "massive adjustment" to his playing style.
Allen was last season's standout player on the tour, winning the UK Championship as well as retaining his Northern Ireland Open title and clinching the World Grand Prix. He was also a match away from making a first ever World Championship final having lost to eventual runner-up Mark Selby in the last four.
And although his form has tailed off slightly this term, the Northern Irishman has still managed to add the Shootout and the Champion of Champions to his CV.
It has been quite the transformation for Allen on and off the table. Having revealed in late 2022 that he had been benefitting from a mind coach, he had also shed five stone in four months. That coincided with a "massive adjustment" in his snooker style - and McManus believes it is now coming to fruition.
Ahead of his Welsh Open quarter-final against John Higgins, McManus told Eurosport: "He’s getting more consistent with the game that he’s been trying to play the last couple of years.
"It’s taken time because it’s a massive adjustment from the traditional style that Mark Allen’s had down the years. It’s getting better, he’s missing less – missing virtually nothing against Si Jiahui.
"At times Mark looks very passive in the chair during matches but he’s actually just getting focused as part of it – he almost looks like he’s in a trance-like state out there. But that’s part of what he’s trying to do, just get in his own thing and be able to perform through that."
His strong mentality was demonstrated in Allen's ability to come back from a deficit in a deciding frame against Cao Yupeng in the first round in Llandudno.
"He shouldn’t be here but he dug in when he had to and that’s the difference in Mark Allen’s game now," McManus added.
"Sometimes when you win a match [like that], you go on to win the tournament. It’s a strange game sometimes," said Jimmy White.
"He won a couple of tournaments last year by playing that sort of negative side to the game, closing it down. He doesn’t like to do that, he likes to get in and score.
"Mark Allen is a winner, he believes he’s the best player in the world."
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