Trent Alexander-Arnold will return to Real Madrid’s Anfield on Tuesday for the first time since leaving Liverpool last summer, but the Reds and their fans will probably be without a right-back more than they would like to admit.
It has been almost six months since Alexander-Arnold confirmed one of football’s worst-kept secrets by announcing that, unlike Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, he would not sign a new contract with the club to pursue a “new challenge” in the Spanish capital, as he told Prime Video Sports before the match.
The fact that this is a local boy and the vice-captain of a team with more than 20 years of association with the Reds means emotions on Merseyside are raw, and the defender was even booed by some fans when he came on as a substitute in the first game following the announcement, against Arsenal at Anfield.
Some have even ridiculed Alexander-Arnold’s claims that part of his reason for joining Los Blancos was to help them win the Ballon d’Or, but there is no doubt that some Liverpool supporters are keeping an eye on him and are even secretly hoping he fails at the Santiago Bernabéu.
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Jamie Carragher opens up about his discomfort with others ‘telling’ Liverpool supporters how to feel about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s impending departure from the club
Initially, the 27-year-old attracted attention both on and off the pitch, addressing Madrid faithful and president Florentino Pérez in Spanish at his unveiling in June, and scoring the winning goal against Juventus in the Club World Cup Round of 16 the following month with Gonzalo García’s trademark cross from the right.
Real Madrid’s Alda Güler and Trent Alexander-Arnold celebrate a goal at the Club World Cup
Things haven’t gone so smoothly since then, however, with Alexander-Arnold being limited to just 156 minutes so far this season, with no goals or assists. Real’s new manager, Xabi Alonso, initially alternated between England and right-back Dani Carvajal after the captain returned from an extended period of rest due to an ACL injury.
Trent Alexander-Arnold at Real’s unveiling last summer
It didn’t help that he suffered a hamstring injury just five minutes into Real’s Champions League opener against Marseille in September, and when Alexander-Arnold was subsequently left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for that month’s World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia, there may have been some jubilation from some sections of the Reds’ fanbase as the then undefeated champions appeared to be thriving without him.
But a lot has changed since then, with Liverpool’s title defense faltering after a fourth straight league defeat saw Arne Slott’s side stripped of their top spot in the Premier League, while they sit just 10th in the Champions League standings ahead of a visit from Real, who have lost just once in all competitions under Alonso.
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Watch for free: Premier League match highlights between Liverpool and Aston Villa
Madrid, who arrived on Merseyside for a rematch with Liverpool after defeating Carlo Ancelotti’s side 2-0 at Anfield last November, have spiced things up with Alexander-Arnold returning from injury and midfielder Federico Valverde competing for a starting spot against his boyhood club, as Carvajal undergoes arthroscopic surgery on his right knee and is likely to miss out on Spain for the rest of the year.
“I have mixed feelings, but it’s up to the fans to decide how I will be received,” he said of his return.
“No matter what happens, my feelings for Liverpool will remain the same. I have memories that will last a lifetime at Liverpool and no matter how I am perceived, that will not change.”
But it could be an unpleasant night for Reds fans from beginning to end. Not only could the returning right-back lead to yet another defeat for his former team, but his very presence at Anfield could serve as a reminder of what they have been missing this season.
Firstly, defensively Liverpool are leaking goals at an alarming rate, with slots running through right-backs like they’re obsolete as the Dutchman tries to decide who will replace Alexander-Arnold.
Conor Bradley had been named in the role but has struggled when he was at his best, with Sky Sports’ Gary Neville questioning his place in the team after the 3-2 defeat to Brentford, saying: “I’m behind Bradley, but it’s difficult when the team concedes goals and the pressure is on.
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Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has given his reaction to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s decision to leave the club at the end of the season.
“If he (Slot) continues to play with Bradley at right-back and they get exposed in midfield, we will continue to get the same results.”
When retaining Alexander-Arnold at Liverpool, manager Jurgen Klopp wanted to further exploit the player’s unique passing range, using him as an inverted midfielder.
They have problems at fullback. Trent is missing.
Jamie Redknapp on Sky Sports
“I’ve never seen those types of passes and crosses from a right-back before. I think you can include all the great right-backs in the world, not just the players who have played in the Premier League,” Neville said of Alexander-Arnold after directing Luis Diaz’s opening goal against Tottenham Hotspur last December. “It’s really sensational, it really is.”
This included effortlessly switching play, often raking in pinpoint cross-field passes to the opposite full-back Andy Robertson, perhaps best exemplified by Liverpool’s second goal against Man City at Anfield in November 2019.
Neither Bradley nor summer signing Jeremy Frimpong possess those skills, which may explain why Liverpool have often resorted to versatile midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai as a makeshift right-back in their place during their recent struggles, finding it difficult to advance the ball up field in Alexander-Arnold’s absence.
All of this has had a knock-on effect on other areas of the team, particularly in attack, where Salah’s form has dropped alarmingly this season without his old friend on the right wing, with his recent strike against Brentford being the forward’s first open-play goal in the top flight since the opening day of the season.
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Paul Merson analyzes Arne Slott’s problems at Liverpool and hints that Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure could be the root cause
“Slot is not paying attention to how long Alexander-Arnold will be out,” Sky Sports’ Paul Merson told Saturday Soccer.
“They underestimated Trent’s departure. They talk about him being one of the best passers in the Premier League and then he’s playing at right-back and now all of a sudden he’s doubling for Salah who doesn’t seem like he’s going to kick the ball.”
Sky Sports’ Nick Wright elaborated further in his ‘Radar’ column, saying: ‘Liverpool’s strength of connection down the right was probably the team’s greatest asset, not just because of the amount of passes but the type of passes Salah received from Alexander-Arnold.’
“The right-back gave Salah exactly what he needed, as evidenced by Opta’s line-breaking pass statistics. Last season, Alexander-Arnold sent 147 of them to Salah, 36 per cent more than any other pairing in the Premier League, followed by Josko Gvardiol to Jeremy Doku with 108.”
“Although much of the focus tended to be on Alexander-Arnold’s defensive fragility, he was, and still is, a unicorn at right-back for his ability to break through structure and get around the defense, ensuring that Salah regularly received the ball in positions that would hurt his opponents.”
And Slott admitted that Sara’s recent slump may have something to do with Alexander-Arnold’s absence.
Asked about Salah’s decline in form, Slott said: “He played alongside Trent throughout his entire career at Liverpool, so that’s a possibility.” “He was often in promising positions enough to score goals, but probably more than that at Trent.”
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Trent Alexander-Arnold has announced on his social media channels that he will be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season. He admitted it was a difficult decision but said his career needed a new challenge.
But it’s not just the goals (23 in total in 354 games) and assists (92 in all competitions, including a record-breaking 67 by a Premier League-era defender) that have seen Slott and Coe sorely lacking this season, but also the homegrown boy’s influence in the dressing room, especially in the aftermath of Diogo Jota’s tragic death.
All of this makes the indifferent reaction to Alexander-Arnold’s decision not to remain at Anfield even more puzzling, with the prevailing view among many Liverpool fans at the time that they should have lost one of their contracted rebels and made it a right-back rather than Salah or captain Virgil van Dijk.
Sunday, November 9th 4pm
4:30pm kickoff
But one wonders if Michael Edwards (Fenway Sports Group CEO of Football) and athletic director Rickard Hughes would actually prioritize keeping Trent if they had time again.
