Editor’s Column: Trent Alexander-Arnold could drag Liverpool to the finish line
He’s a truly ridiculous footballer, is Trent. It irritates me how commentators actually ignore his 50-yard passes now. He’ll spray one cross-field, over the head of the opposition right-back and into the feet of Luis Diaz, and the co-comm chimes in with how good the touch was to bring it down! Diaz does take long-balls […]
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He’s a truly ridiculous footballer, is Trent.
It irritates me how commentators actually ignore his 50-yard passes now. He’ll spray one cross-field, over the head of the opposition right-back and into the feet of Luis Diaz, and the co-comm chimes in with how good the touch was to bring it down!
Diaz does take long-balls very nicely, but the pass is a harder skill than the reception, or everyone would do it.
Alexander-Arnold was Man of the Match yesterday in his first Premier League start since February. His inch-perfect cross to Diaz should have put us 1-0 up early on, but he scored a beautiful freekick to open the scoring and ran the show from deep throughout.
It’s very hard to say where he played. He basically just patrolled the area between our defence and midfield, like a quarterback, looking for runs and dictating tempo.
“Conor Bradley played a few games or football where we all thought: oh, wow! What was that?”.
“But the truth is that nobody is like Trent, that’s the way it is,” said Klopp after the game.
He’s right, obviously. Bradley looks such an exciting prospect. Fast, feisty, quality in the final third. Hard-working. What a player he’s going to be. But there hasn’t been a right-back like Trent in the history of football.
“He is unique,” said Jamie Carragher for Sky Sports following the 3-1 win.
“It’s like having Kevin de Bruyne at right-back.
“He’s got a free role. Watching him today, it looks like he’s been given licence to just find where he gets on the ball and do his thing.”
Liverpool were actually flying without Trent for a decent period. Joe Gomez and Bradley both stepped up to the plate and Alexis Mac Allister became the team’s creator.
For a good month or so the Argentine was our best player. Always on the ball, providing big moments and showing a combination of bite and elegance in a probing midfield role.
The no.10 was best with Wataru Endo deployed as a no.6 beside him, giving him more creative licence.
Now the question is how Klopp will use Trent and Mac together. Against Atalanta last week, it simply didn’t work. Trent ran out of gas and Mac was surprisingly negative, playing more passes to Alisson than to any other team-mate.
Endo is key though. Use the Japanese as a sitter, put Mac as the no.8 and let Trent step in next to Endo when we have the ball. Like Carra says, Trent has the most freedom, and Endo provides him that, as he does for Mac Allister, too.
These three players are utterly crucial if Liverpool are to win our remaining five games and give ourselves a chance of winning the title.
Even with five wins, we’re still not favourites, considering we probably need Manchester City to lose a game and Arsenal to also drop points given the respective goal-differences.
But Trent is the key. He’s not worn out from a long season given he’s missed a third of it. He’s hungry and playing with responsibility. He wants to inspire us to glory and he’s at the right age now where he can carry us.
He needs scrappers and fighters around him so that he can pull the strings. Obviously the forwards need to take their chances and Salah and Nunez need to get themselves back in the goals.
But Trent starting every game makes five wins a possibility. Then we have to pray Tottenham Hotspurs manager Ange Postecoglu, lifelong Liverpool fan, does us a favour against our rivals.
You never know.
The post Editor’s Column: Trent Alexander-Arnold could drag Liverpool to the finish line appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.