For the majority of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool reign, the Reds have had a very distinguishable way of playing.
Traditionally lining up in a 4-3-3 formation, you can go through the set-up position by position and say with relative ease and confidence exactly what their Liverpool role is. For example, both full-backs are encouraged to get forward at every opportunity, and have been the Reds’ main creative outlet as they overlap both a hard-working midfield and two inverted forwards.
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson’s assist returns have been remarkable as a result, with such a style truly unleashed from the 2018/19 season onwards. The England international has set up 68 goals over the past five years, with the Scotland captain registering 58 assists over the same time period.
Go back a further year, to the start of the left-back’s Anfield career after being signed from Hull City, and their records stand at 70 and 63 assists in all competitions respectively. Meanwhile, last season Robertson became the highest-assisting defender in Premier League history with 57 assists. On 54 assists, Alexander-Arnold occupies second-placed and it would be no surprise if the pair kept alternating in top spot in future seasons.
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Yet, despite such a set-up predominantly serving Liverpool so well, the Reds struggles last year resulted in Klopp switching things up defensively. Adopting an inverted full-back system, which sees his side line up in a 3-2-2-3 formation when on the ball, with Alexander-Arnold pushing forward into central midfield, such a change coincided with an 11-game unbeaten run in the final two months of the season.
While not enough to rescue a top four finish, it at least smoothed over issues with a flailing midfield and restored Alexander-Arnold to his best form after a most-challenging individual campaign. He registered more assists, chances created, passes in the opposing half and completed passes in the final third, penalty area entries, touches, and possession wins than any other player in the Premier League across the final 10 games of the season.
“If it is long term we will see, it just depends on the new players that we bring in,” Klopp would tell Sky Sports of the change after his side’s win over Brentford. “It suits him (Alexander-Arnold) extremely well.”
Having long been the subject of debate regarding his best position, such performances seemed to support the notion that Alexander-Arnold should make a permanent switch into midfield. However, Liverpool’s transfer stance this summer seems to have dismissed such an idea.
The Reds are continuing to revamp their midfield, with a left-sided centre-back also on their radar. Despite reported interest in Bayern Munich’s Benjamin Pavard, club sources have distanced Liverpool from such speculation and insist there is no desire to sign a new right-back at Anfield this summer.
With James Milner leaving the Reds at the end of his contract, and Calvin Ramsay joined Preston North End on loan after an injury-wrecked first season on Merseyside, that leaves Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley, off the back of a successful season on loan at Bolton Wanderers, as the only alternatives to Alexander-Arnold.
Were the England international to be primarily considered as a midfielder, you could assume that Klopp would have sought a new senior right-back to replace him rather than stick with a centre-back and a teenager yet to play in the Premier League. As a result, it seems logical to suggest that Liverpool either stick with the inverted full-back system or revert to their traditional 4-3-3 set-up, depending on the rest of their midfield business.
Either way, they are covered at right centre-back with Gomez a pacey alternative to Ibrahima Konate, and Joel Matip still under contract at Anfield for another year. And with regards to the Frenchman, Alexander-Arnold thinks the centre-back’s own defensive hybrid role actually also plays to his strengths.
“I think the system suits profiles,” he said last month. “Ibou is an athletic centre-back who can move, he can run, he is strong, fast, he can cover big spaces and defends outstandingly well in those big spaces, so I think maybe that gap I’m leaving when I am coming into the middle of the pitch is filled by a player who can handle that and do that.”
Of course, such a decision also has a knock-on effect for Robertson on the opposing flank.
“Robbo is sacrificing himself as well, playing as more of a left-sided centre-half,” Alexander-Arnold conceded following the switch.
While the new set-up saw him register a goal and seven assists from his final 10 outings of the season, Robertson would register two assists from eight starts over the same period with Liverpool’s formation ultimately requiring him to sacrifice his more natural attacking instincts.
"Yeah, it’s different, maybe a little bit more conservative," Robertson admitted of the role himself to Liverpoolfc.com last month. "Obviously previously maybe we’re used to being more high and wide and offering runs in behind and kind of things like that, but we have obviously tweaked the system a little bit and sometimes you have to make sacrifices and you have to adapt your role a little bit, and I think I’ve managed to do that.
"It’s been a kind of back three as such and then Trent going in next to Fabinho. As long as the team is winning then everything is fine - that’s the most important thing.
"Of course, I still try to get involved in attacks, I still want to overlap my winger and things like that but I just need to pick and choose my moments. I think as the games have gone on I’ve got better at picking and choosing the moments, I’ve adapted to the role a lot better.
"It’s just trying to use that and whatever system we play next season or if we have a couple of systems we can play then it’s about finding yourself within that and bringing the best out of you.
"There’s probably two different sides of my game depending on what formation we play. But I feel as if I have adapted well to it and, like I said, as long as we keep on winning and we keep progressing as a team then I’ll happily be doing that job."
Robertson’s hybrid role can be utilised successfully, of course, as Klopp explained last month after beating Nottingham Forest, despite acknowledging the subsequent difficulties.
“Of course it changed his role slightly. That’s clear,” the German told reporters. “We cannot have one full-back in the centre of the field and the other constantly high up on the left side.
“That’s difficult so Robbo has to judge the situations when he can be involved and when he can overlap like at Leeds when he overlaps Diogo passes to Cody, Mo, goal.
“These situations are still there. But in the first moment of the build-up, yes his role and positioning has changed slightly. But he’s a very experienced player, a very smart player and he knows when we need him there.
“Today it was a bit of a mix. From time to time he had to be high but that depends on the moment and the situation. The boys have to learn to read these situations right and do these things in the right moment.”
Yet while Robertson can operate as this third centre-back, it’s clear the Scotland international isn’t as natural a fit as Konate on the opposing flank. It’s also telling that the other two clubs that play with an inverted full-back in the Premier League, in Man City and Arsenal, predominantly field a centre-back on the opposing flank (Nathan Ake and Ben White).
As a result, Liverpool’s search for a new left-sided centre-back could be, in part, to ensure they have a more natural defensive option as an alternative to Robertson for certain games, able to act as a ‘left-sided Konate’ to complement Alexander-Arnold’s inverted full-back on the opposing flank.
Yet, it would seem that by pursuing such a target, the Reds have also started their search for an eventual long-term replacement for Virgil van Dijk. Chelsea’s Levi Colwill has his admirers at Anfield, while Liverpool have also been linked with VfL Wolfsburg’s Micky van de Ven and Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, with all three players fitting both bills.
Whether Klopp sticks with the inverted full-back system in 2023/24, only time will tell. But at the very least, the Reds' transfer stances regarding Pavard, any new right-back, and their actual desire for a new left-sided centre-back has seemingly dismissed the notion of Alexander-Arnold making a full switch into the Liverpool midfield anytime soon. For now.
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