With James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arthur all being moved on, and Jordan Henderson and their sometimes-fit maestro Thiago both the wrong side of 30, Liverpool’s midfield was in dire need of restoration this summer.
Which explains their swift purchasing of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, with Southampton’s Romeo Lavia rumoured to follow.
How ironic then, that amidst all of this coming and going, the Reds already possess their dream midfielder, in the form of their current right-back.
This of course will not be news to Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool boss already well aware of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s attributes in more central areas.
Indeed, when people first began to comment on the 24-year-old’s shift in position last season - inverting to a ‘six’ to good affect against Arsenal in April and continuing thereafter as the Reds’ odds subsequently shortened in the football betting - the German coach was very keen to point out this was not the first time the strategy had been deployed.
“I thought he did well. It was not the first time, but not for a while,” Klopp said post-match, after Alexander-Arnold had assisted a late equalizer.
“We did that before, but it was not that obvious. But we did that before, we put Trent inside,” he emphasized in the very same interview, for those at the back.
Here though, the Liverpool manager is being economical with the truth, if only a touch.
Because while it’s true that the player has previously taken up a midfield berth at Anfield, this was only by necessity in the maelstrom of an injury crisis, each outing occurring prior to 2018 when Alexander-Arnold was still a developing teenager.
In fact, when we revisit how Klopp responded to Gareth Southgate’s brief flirtation with reinventing the player as a midfielder for England in 2021, we find he takes a very different tack.
“Why would you make the best right-back in the world a midfielder? I don't understand that really,” the player’s club manager said, in defence of a poor showing that particular evening.
So what changed his mind? What led to Alexander-Arnold being stationed in midfield this spring, despite Klopp’s apparent aversion to it?
It can be explained with a recognition that the England international is a sublime talent going forward, as evidenced by 76 career assists, so many of them created after advancing from deep. He is also in possession of excellent vision and a nuanced touch to back it up.
Just as inarguable however, it can be reasoned that Alexander-Arnold is weak from a defensive standpoint, something that opponents have long sought to capitalize on by targeting the gaps that he leaves.
This is fine when Liverpool are flying, with positives more than compensating for negatives. But when the Reds encounter a season such as last, slipping down the Premier League betting and struggling to find consistency, it becomes a real problem.
Turning him into an inverted full-back therefore makes total sense, providing the player with cover via a centre-back moving across, and getting the best out of his creativity.
Speaking late last term on Alexander-Arnold’s new hybrid role, Jamie Carragher claimed that if made permanent, it could save the club £100m in the transfer market.
With Liverpool reportedly still active in the window and looking to feature prominently in football predictions this campaign, their overhaul not yet complete, he still might.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
