For someone whose total number of minutes played stood at a grand total of zero, Trent Alexander-Arnold will be forgiven for raising an eyebrow at the intensity of the debate around him during this international break.
Anyone and everyone, it seems, has been queuing up to give their insights and opinions on the Reds' right-back over much of the last two weeks. From Frank Leboeuf and Thomas Hitzlsperger through to Gabby Agbonlahor and Chris Waddle, Alexander-Arnold, if he dares listen, has been hearing his name echo around the news agenda from all angles during the break. It's been quite the eclectic mix of football opinion-givers.
With theories that have ranged from the banal - "he's great going forward, maybe not so much going backwards." - to the bizarre - a "Championship-level defender" who should "retire from international duty" - it seems everyone has a hot take on the 23-year-old from West Derby.
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First, some facts presented without comment: Liverpool had the best defensive record in Europe's top five leagues last term; Alexander-Arnold made 32 Premier League appearances in 2021/22; Jurgen Klopp's side have conceded the fewest goals in three of the last four full top-flight campaigns and Alexander-Arnold has averaged 34 games a season during that time; since 2019, the defender has won every major honour available to an English club; he has made 235 appearances for Liverpool before his 24th birthday; he is the second-youngest player to start three Champions League finals; he was shortlisted for the 2022 Ballon d'Or in August; he has been named in the PFA Team of the Year in three of the last four seasons; he was named in the Champions League Team of the Season by UEFA'S Technical Observer Panel in May.
A couple of more statistics to mull over: Since the last World Cup in Russia, over four years ago, Alexander-Arnold has recorded 44 assists and created 315 chances. Only Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne is ahead of the Liverpool star for assists during that period.
The idea, then, that his extraordinary attacking output is undercut by Alexander-Arnold being a disaster-in-waiting at the back does not hold up to any real scrutiny or analysis. He may not necessarily be the most defensively aggressive full-back of his generation but such is the attention on Liverpool's No.66 that it has afforded his England colleagues - and rivals for a World Cup place - to hide their own deficiencies away from uninformed punditry when it comes to this infernal topic.
The debate has raged unchecked since Alexander-Arnold was left out of the squad entirely as the relegated Three Lions put aside a run of 566 minutes without a goal in open play to draw 3-3 with Germany in the Nations League at Wembley on Monday night.
The complaint that Gareth Southgate is a manager whose foot hovers over the brake rather than the accelerator is a regular one and his over-reliance on goals from set-pieces and penalties does indeed betray the fact he has Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, Harry Kane, Jadon Sancho, Bukayo Saka and Jack Grealish to choose from in the final third.
The England manager also has a creativity in abundance at right-back should he ever be emboldened enough to even try and extract what Alexander-Arnold has routinely offered to Liverpool over the last four years or so. That, it seems, is a challenge beyond a coach who finds it easier to trust the more traditional full-backs he has at his disposal in Newcastle's Kieran Trippier and Chelsea's Reece James. Two fine full-backs in their own right, it must be stressed.
But, as journalist Adam Bate so perfectly phrased it for Sky Sports this week: "In this context, bemoaning Alexander-Arnold's weaknesses deserves the same contempt one might regard someone who focuses on Lionel Messi's heading ability or a music critic who takes the time to tell you that Jimi Hendrix was not a whizz on the tuba."
Ultimately, the only opinions that matter where Alexander-Arnold is concerned are that of Jurgen Klopp and Southgate, whose consistent overlooking of the Reds man is nothing new, despite the avalanche of opinion that has rolled downhill over much of the last fortnight.
For Klopp, his defender has been "the stand-out right-back in world football" for the past few years, while Southgate believes "[Trippier's] all-round game is ahead" of Alexander-Arnold's at present. That's despite the Liverpool man leading his Newcastle rival in ball recoveries, chances created, passing and crossing accuracy, tackles made and take-on successes having played a game less this season.
The Liverpool right-back's omission from duty in both the games against Italy and Germany means it's highly unlikely there will be a place for him on the plane that jets out to Qatar in November for the World Cup.
That, to many Reds supporters, will be music to the ears, but it will still represent a massive shame if one of the most gifted full-backs in world football is on a beach somewhere when the biggest competition in football gets underway for England at the Khalifa International Stadium on November 21.
For now, there is little Alexander-Arnold can do but return to Liverpool, pick his chin off the floor, lift his shoulders back and remind everyone - from lazy pundits to defensive-minded international managers - just why he has the kind of honours' list he does at just 23.
He, like many others at Anfield, might just have benefitted from the last few weeks away from the pressure cooker of an underperforming Liverpool side, and if it has the desired effect, that will only be a huge boost for Klopp, even if Southgate, for whatever reason, is unlikely to see it.
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