Since cementing his place in the Liverpool starting XI in 2017/18, Trent Alexander-Arnold has proven himself to be one of the very best right-backs in world football.
An English, European and world champion during his time at Anfield, he became the youngest player to win all six major honours on offer to English clubs this season as the Reds clinched a domestic cup double. Meanwhile, his return of 61 assists and 12 goals, as a defender, from 226 appearances is astonishing.
Yet some would still have you believe that the 23-year-old should be reinvented as a midfielder, with lazy criticism of his defensive attributes still present despite all he has achieved in the game to date. Such questioning was again evident after Liverpool ’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid last month, when Vinicius Jr got away from the right-back to score a tap-in when left unmarked at the far post.
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The fact that the entire Reds defence had been pulled across with no covering midfielder back to fill the gap was deemed irrelevant, for some. They just couldn’t resist the opportunity to point the finger at Alexander-Arnold and criticise Liverpool’s use of him once again. Like Vinicius’ Paris winner, it was an open goal.
Fortunately, Klopp is highly unlikely to play the England international in midfield. The 23-year-old was a midfielder when coming through the Reds academy, leaving the club better placed than anyone to judge what Alexander-Arnold brings at right-back and what he’d bring in midfield.
Transfermarkt only credits the German starting the defender in midfield once, for a 0-0 draw with Stoke City at Anfield back in April 2018. Meanwhile, while Gareth Southgate experimented with Alexander-Arnold in midfield against Andorra last year, prefer reverting him to his preferred position at half-time, Klopp was rather critical.
"In this game, in a game where England are that dominant for example, or that we are that dominant that Trent could play in midfield, I would rather he was the six than in this case the eight," he said. "That is possible but why would you make the best right-back in the world a midfielder? I don't understand that really.
"As if the right-back position is not as important as the others. People who say that I struggle to understand how you could think that."
As far as Klopp is concerned, case closed. Alexander-Arnold will remain a right-back and rightly so. But with the 23-year-old already one of the very best in his position and contracted at Anfield until 2025, with further extensions certain to follow, it has left Liverpool with the unenviable task of finding a back-up option for the role.
When first breaking into the Reds’ starting XI, it didn’t take the defender long to usurp Nathaniel Clyne in the pecking order. In the years since, Joe Gomez and James Milner have predominantly been makeshift replacements when he has been ruled out or in need of a rest.
But given how crucial Alexander-Arnold is to Liverpool’s style of play, a natural replacement is much more beneficial as the Reds have witnessed on the opposing flank when Kostas Tsimikas steps in for Andy Robertson. As a result, with replacing the England international an impossible job, Klopp has turned to the club’s academy once more.
Neco Williams has been the main understudy in recent years since being handed his debut in October 2019, but has been limited to 13 Premier League appearances with only six coming from the start over the past three years as a result of that quality in front of him. It’s partly why a loan exit to Fulham was sanctioned in January and why the Wales international looks set to leave the club permanently this summer.
Meanwhile, with Liverpool willing to let Williams leave last summer, Conor Bradley was earmarked to step up as Alexander-Arnold’s back-up with the Reds having high hopes for the Northern Ireland international. He would make five appearances for the club last season before being allowed to leave on loan for Bolton Wanderers earlier this month in search of further game-time to aid his development.
With a natural back-up right-back the only position left unfilled as Liverpool hunted an unprecedented quadruple last season, the Reds wasted no time in filling that vacancy this summer with the signing of Calvin Ramsay from Aberdeen in a deal worth a potential £6.5m. Having shone in a breakthrough season north of the border last year, the 18-year-old recorded nine assists from 33 appearances in all competitions with his performances earning him the Scottish Football Writers Association Young Player of the Year award.
After picking up the award, he name-dropped Alexander-Arnold as someone he looks up to before repeating such claims in his first interview with the club following his move to Anfield.
“Players like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kyle Walker, all those top players, I like to watch videos of them and base my game on them,” Ramsay said back in April. “Obviously they’re at a high level and if I try to model my game on them then I know that I’ve got a chance of going as far as I can.
“As a full-back, I watch Trent, his crosses and his technical ability - if I can get to that level then it would be a bonus. You have to be technically good and he is technically good. When he moved to right back from midfield he is good at going forward and good defensively. If I can be half the player of him I will be laughing.”
Ramsay is obviously highly-rated by Reds bosses, with the Scotland Under-21s international being identified as a real prospect who can develop and play exactly how Klopp and Pep Lijnders want their full-backs to play, and will go straight into the first team this pre-season. Yet while he’ll now learn from Alexander-Arnold at Anfield, the 18-year-old also faces that daunting prospect of trying to get in the Liverpool team ahead of him.
But this is where one answer in his first interview with the club could aid Ramsay’s opportunity for minutes, with the similarities to Alexander-Arnold going beyond being an attacking right-back with an eye for an assist. Like his new Liverpool team-mate, the young Scot also started his career in midfield when coming through the Aberdeen academy.
“I think I'm quite versatile as well, I can play in a few different positions,” he said after his transfer was confirmed last week. “I started off in midfield, coming through [the] Aberdeen youth academy, and then I got moved out to right-back.
“My first game was against Chelsea in a tournament, so it was a difficult game to go right-back for. But I did well and I've played right-back ever since.
“I can play a few positions, I think I'm quite composed on the ball, can find a pass, get shots away. So, I can play centre-mid, right-back, right-wing – anywhere really.”
Like Williams and Bradley before him, Ramsay will likely find regular Premier League and Champions League opportunities hard to come by while competing with Alexander-Arnold, even once he’s had pre-season and domestic cup games to bed in with. But his ability to play midfield could also give him a further route into Klopp’s team.
The German likes versatile players and the defender is exactly that, with him now providing a natural back-up option to Alexander-Arnold, akin to Tsimikas on the left, that has been lacking. However, while the England international has established himself as the best right-back in the world and won’t be taken out of that position, the Scotland Under-21s international’s Anfield journey is only starting.
Liverpool bosses will inevitably prefer for him to get minutes at right-back, but that midfield versatility provides this alternative option that Klopp has been unwilling to use with Alexander-Arnold in the past. And with a midfield signing now on hold until 2023, Ramsay is an option to make up numbers in the engine-room if required.
Klopp still has the same eight senior options who nearly delivered an unprecedented quadruple to call upon, but it’s understandable why some consider the Reds short in midfield due to the age, injury record and contract status of a number of that octet. Seeing rivals Man City, Tottenham and Arsenal sign the likes of Kalvn Phillips, Yves Bissouma and Fabio Vieira, all who have been linked with Liverpool in the past, will only heighten such concerns.
And while the Reds’ stance is set to wait until 2023 to strengthen their midfield, with their incoming business now done for the summer, Ramsay’s arrival, despite predominantly being brought in as an alternative to Alexander-Arnold, has ensured that Liverpool have actually added to their midfielder quota after all.
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