Ahead of their Saturday matchup at Anfield, Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold has issued a warning to Aston Villa. Unai Emery and his players will need to be aware of the right-back’s modified positional responsibilities this season, which include acting as an additional central midfielder when Liverpool have the ball.
The positional tweak has certainly reaped results for the Reds, who are now on a run of seven wins in a row. This is the best run of results Liverpool have had throughout the season, but might just be too little too late. They are on the verge of missing out on Champions League football, and only a miracle could now help them topple fourth placed Manchester United for the final ticket to the elite European tournament.
Alexander-Arnold loving his new Liverpool role which is helping him ‘affect’ games
Trent Alexander-Arnold thought back to the time six weeks prior when Jurgen Klopp explained how his position will soon alter. It was the day before Arsenal, who were then leading the Premier League, were scheduled to visit Anfield. After a disastrous few weeks in which they had been eliminated by Real Madrid from the Champions League and had accrued just one point in their previous nine league games, Liverpool was in dire need of a boost.
Klopp had a strategy to turn things around, and it focused on his explosive right-back. It was experimenting with Alexander-Arnold, who has indicated he likes playing his new position and will continue to do so as he attempts to assist Liverpool defeat Villa at Anfield. He told The Athletic:
“I was excited. I saw it as an opportunity. It’s a position I’d not played before. I just wanted to go out there and prove that I could do it. It feels good, it feels natural for me. I feel like I’m able to perform there. I’m able to affect games, change games, and dictate games. I want to keep doing it. I want to help the team to keep winning games. Hopefully, we can win the last two and finish this season on a high.”
Shedding light on why does the new position suit him so well, the Liverpool academy starlet explains from the outside looking in, it appears like it puts him in situations where he can show off his variety of passing and seriously harm opponents with his creative spark more frequently. Alexander-Arnold adds:
“Before taking this on, I was only ever really able to break lines on the right side of the pitch. I was never able to do it on the left. And if I was to play a good pass it would be a big switch and they can only be so effective. This position just opens up the whole pitch for me. I’m able to kind of dictate the flow of the game — where we attack, how we attack and at what pace. That’s exciting. I really like being able to do that.”
His incredible goal in Monday’s 3-0 win against Leicester City was his first in the Premier League since the 9-0 destruction of Bournemouth in August. Mohamed Salah had slid a free kick into his path. After the failures that had lowered his morale early in the season, Alexander-Arnold was performing at the height of his abilities once more. He said:
“I feel my mindset and the way I’m going into games is still the same, but it comes down to confidence. I believe in what I’m doing again. I have full belief in it. Over the course of the season, it had been dented. Now I’m playing with that confidence and expressing myself out there. A lot of the talk has been centred around me because mine looks like it’s the biggest positional change within that system. It’s the obvious one but everyone has to play a different role.”
Asked whether does he still consider himself a right-back or has that role changed for him and will he eventually end up becoming a regular name in Klopp’s midfield as a result of this hybrid role, the Liverpool starlet explains:
“I’m both. With the ball, I see myself as a midfielder. Without the ball, I see myself as a right-back. I don’t know if that’s (permanent midfield role) where it’s heading but it’s an avenue it could certainly head down and that’s something I’m prepared for. But I’m also prepared for going back to a 4-3-3 and being right-back again. That’s down to the manager to decide. Mentally, I’m ready for anything. I feel like I’m able to affect games, no matter where I play on the pitch now.”