It’s been too long since Jurgen Klopp was last asked, and the time has never been nigher. Trent Alexander-Arnold is a better footballer than he is a right-back. Get him in midfield.
“Why make the best right-back in the world a midfielder?” was Jurgen Klopp’s rhetorical question in September 2021 after Gareth Southgate had bowed to popular demand and experimented with Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield for England.
One year on and nobody in their right mind would put the same proposition to an increasingly testy Liverpool manager, but he won’t read this – and if you are, Jurgen, take heed, because the time is nigh, or at least it’s never been nigher.
“It’s a little bit of a shame that we talk still in 2021 like this about football,” Klopp said in that same press conference. “Players play everywhere, especially good players.”
He went on to explain that although Alexander-Arnold lined up at right-back, he could frequently be found in midfield positions for Liverpool, depending on the opponent, his teammates and the state of the game. As is the case with Reece James, Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and others, Alexander-Arnold is less a full-back than he is a very good footballer.
The difference between the Liverpool genius (I say genius firstly because I believe he is one but also in an attempt to lessen the blowback from fans who can probably sense what’s coming) and his aforementioned counterparts is that – here we go, deep breath – Trent Alexander-Arnold is not very good at defending.
Actually no, saying he’s not good is giving him too much credit. He can defend well; there are plenty of examples. Which suggests when he doesn’t defend that he’s either too foolish to recognise that he should be, or his ego has grown to such a size that he simply can’t be bothered.
Remember guys – ‘genius’.
We’re eight games into the season and Alexander-Arnold has cost Liverpool more than he’s produced for them. His one goal – wonderful though it was – came in the 9-0 hiding of Bournemouth, he’s yet to provide an assist and the 4-1 defeat to Napoli provided more than enough ammo to see his critics win out, even without the further examples of his brain failing to engage when forced to defend.
Simplistic though it is to ignore his worth to Liverpool’s build-up play, his pre-assists or whatever else, up to now we’ve gauged Alexander-Arnold’s brilliance largely on his number of assists, suggesting we should…
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