I was going to write this article last week, and wow: I’m so glad that I didn’t. Alexander-Arnold’s injury time goal gave Liverpool all three points against Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon. I’ll let you into what the article is about at the start. It is about the merits of moving Trent into a midfield position and strengthening at right-back in preference to signing a top-class midfielder this summer.
He has been criticized, especially in the second half of this campaign about his defensive role and has even lost his place in the England national team’s setup. Gareth “The Waistcoat” Southgate opted for the duo of Manchester City’s Kyle Walker and Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Tripper as his options in the latest World Cup qualifying fixtures, much to the bemusement of Jurgen Klopp, who said “England must have a very strong squad not to call up Trent”.
In his last few years, Trent has been spectacular, often controlling games from the unlikely position of right back, with a combination of his fantastic crosses and cross field balls when play is building up. My own assessment of the scenario is that when he was 18-21, opposing teams didn’t know how to deal with him. He could ping 60-yard cross field passes to Andy Robertson in build ups, while also having the ability to fire in crosses with pinpoint accuracy into the box, picking up record levels of assists for a full back.
Across the board now, teams are giving him so little space, even when he is deeper in the play as they have identified what a threat he is, even if he’s in his own half. When he’s approaching the opponent’s penalty area, he has been marked intensely. Many media pundits have said “he’s been worked out”, and while that is maybe the case, does it take a genius to figure out that “marking one of the best players of the opposing team” is a solid approach? But let’s just follow that narrative, that he has been “figured out”.
As one of the biggest Trent admirers, I do have to admit that defensively, he has been found wanting at times. But all through his development, he has never been a right back and neither was Steven Gerrard when he first burst onto the scene, but the ex-Liverpool captain was also deployed at right-back in his early years with the first team. I think that Trent has become a victim of his own success. He was always a No. 8 midfielder in his academy years and when he first got a chance, he was deployed at right back, but did so damn well at it, that he ended up playing there permanently. He had never been a right back though, and several pundits have said during his 3 years in that position that he was “controlling the game from right-back”.
While I don’t completely believe the narrative that “he’s been found out”, let’s roll with it for a while. If it took 3 years to “figure him out” at right back, how long will it take for teams to figure him out if he moves into midfield, as either a No. 8 or a deep lying playmaker? I’m suggesting here that instead of dipping into the market and buying another top-level midfielder, we should instead switch our focus on signing a new modern specialized right back. Not an old school sort like Aaron Wan Bissaka that can only defend but when attacking looks like he’s trying to fly a kite, but a proper right sided fullback that defends first, but also has the qualities to attack. It’s obvious what I’m describing here isn’t it? We need a right sided Andy Robertson.
Trent’s goal against Villa was pretty magical. It came when we were under so much pressure. We really needed that goal to stay in the race for top 4. But where did it come from? Our “right-back” was on our left side of the opposition’s penalty area. How often is he going to be in areas like that when he’s playing at right-back? It just gives more solidarity to the idea that he should be playing further forward. Not only for his goal scoring ability from areas like that, but his range of passing. Thiago was signed for his range of passing and vision, but I believe that if the reigns are taken off Alexander-Arnold and he is unleashed into midfield, he could even surpass Thiago Alcantara.
It is too late in the season to do it now, and we do not have a specialized right back of the required pedigree to step in. I do have faith that Neco Williams will become a Premier League quality right back, but I don’t think that he can be relied on just yet to be consistent enough in a push for Champions League places. Trent will just have to keep doing what he has done so well for the last three years until the end of the season, when he will likely have a full pre-season to become re-accustomed to his natural midfield role, and Klopp and Edwards can look for a player to fill in on the right side of defence.
Who could fill that role? I’m no scout, but there are several players that could do the job. Benjamin Pavard would have been a perfect candidate a couple of years ago, but now that he’s at Bayern Munich, that looks like an impossible transfer to pull off. We would need someone ready-made; not a youngster with potential, otherwise Max Aarons of Norwich or Benjamin Heinrichs of RB Leipzig would be ideal. We will likely need an older “stop-gap” player. Maybe someone along the lines of Calabria from AC Milan or James Justin from Leicester. I trust Klopp and Edwards to get it right though. I just think that it is imperative now for Trent’s future that he is moved back into his natural position. He’s a damn fine right back. He’s the best player, playing at right back in the country, but he isn’t the best right back in the country, and surely that should be shouting out at the manager that he needs a change.