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<\/p>\nTrent Alexander-Arnold has taken on a new midfield role with England <\/p>\n
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Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Andrea Pirlo: they are not names the average right-back cites as an influence. But then it has long been apparent that Trent Alexander-Arnold is not the average right-back. He is the playmaker, the revolutionary with the passing range of a quarterback, not a right-back. He still tends to start in a back four for Liverpool but he is now listed among the midfielders when England squads are named: if Alexander-Arnold long appeared the conundrum Gareth Southgate could not solve, now he has found what to do with a full-back who suffered from being the antithesis of Kyle Walker.<\/p>\n
Jurgen Klopp was initially a sceptic when Southgate tried Alexander-Arnold in a central role against Andorra two years ago. \u201cWhy would you make the best right-back in the world a midfielder? I don\u2019t understand that, really,\u201d he said then. Yet he has facilitated Alexander-Arnold\u2019s evolution. If it stems in part from a shift in Liverpool\u2019s tactics, beginning with April\u2019s draw against Arsenal, to enable them to build up with two men in front of the defence, his recent international appearances, apart from against Australia, have been as a bona fide midfielder. The 25-year-old feels he actually occupies similar parts of the pitch for club and country, just from different starting positions.<\/p>\n
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Gareth Southgate has finally figured out a role for the Liverpool star <\/p>\n
\u201cI go there as a midfielder,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really does help me in that sense, I am not playing midfield week in, week out here but I am getting on the ball in central areas. The way I see it and the way I am told and explained to play it, it is almost when we have the ball I am a midfielder and when we don\u2019t have the ball I am a right-back. Half of the time or 60 per cent of the game, I am playing in midfield so naturally people warm to the idea of me playing in the middle of the pitch. Defensively, I haven\u2019t been given the opportunity to know how to play there just yet, but it is something I study.\u201d<\/p>\n
The learning process involves examining the midfield masters, the men who have set the tone for their teams by lending control; but also an England colleague who is also part defender, part midfielder.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think as someone who plays the inverted, hybrid role \u2013 I don\u2019t know what people call it these days \u2013 then it is obviously John Stones,\u201d Alexander-Arnold added. \u201cFor a long time, I have admired his game. He is exceptional, so I watch him a lot; clips or even when I am just watching [Manchester] City\u2019s games, I will sit and focus on him. I do admire the way Rodri plays. He is pivotal in that team and massively underrated but, like we have seen recently, when you take him out of the team, they are not the same. That just shows how important he is. I will watch players from the past as well \u2013 Busquets, Alonso, Pirlo, Stevie G.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steven Gerrard can assume significance for several reasons; Alexander-Arnold, appointed Virgil van Dijk\u2019s deputy, is on course to become the first Merseysider to become Liverpool\u2019s club captain since perhaps their most iconic skipper. But Gerrard\u2019s initial foray into coaching was with Liverpool youth teams. In his second autobiography, he praised a young \u201cTrent Arnold\u201d, as he called him. \u201cHe can play as a No 6, a holding midfielder, but he\u2019s versatile,\u201d Gerrard wrote then.<\/p>\n
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Trent Alexander-Arnold is an admirer of England colleague John Stones<\/p>\n
Gerrard made the opposite journey to Alexander-Arnold: he ended up at the base of the midfield after spending much of the previous decade as a No 10, a No 8 or a right-sided midfielder. If neither is a metronome, a common denominator is the rare ability to play a defence-splitting pass from deep. That, almost, is the easy bit for Alexander-Arnold. The harder part is the positional sense the main defensive midfielder has to exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when the ball advances up the pitch it becomes more about protection and stopping counterattacks,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt is more disciplined. When I come in as a right-back there is still [Wataru] Endo or Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] there, Fabinho last season, their job is to stay as the No 6. It doesn\u2019t waiver. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy job is the one who comes in and still has the freedom to underlap Mo [Salah] or overlap him, get into the box, shoot or cross. Whereas as a No 6, it is more rigid, you are a defensive midfielder and it is your role along with the two centre-backs to ensure that when the ball pops out of the box, it doesn\u2019t go into the striker\u2019s feet and they can build from there. That is probably the main one. The rest is positionally getting used to where to be and a lot of it in me is very instinctive and trying to read the game before it happens and put myself in the right position.\u201d<\/p>\n
If Southgate long had the problem of where the right position for Alexander-Arnold was, the answer may involve not Walker, Kieran Trippier, Reece James and his host of right-backs, but Stones and Pirlo, Gerrard and Alonso.<\/p>\n