Not even a commanding 4-0 victory over Leicester on Sunday could spare one Reds player from a pundit’s critique over one aspect of his play.
Gary Gillespie was on co-commentary duty with LFC TV for that match, and he wasn’t entirely happy with Trent Alexander-Arnold over his willingness to ‘get the tackle in’, having reverted to more of a nominal right-back role from the midfield position he’d previously occupied in pre-season.
The pundit said of the 24-year-old at one point during yesterday’s win (via TBR Football): “Just saying about moving into a central position in midfield, I think that when you move into that midfield area, your defensive duties become a little bit different.
“I think if you move him back to full-back where you’ve got to defend a bit more in one-on-one situations, you just get a little bit sloppy defensively. Trent, on a couple of occasions, just looks a little bit reluctant to make contact with players and get the tackle in.”
Although Trent has been criticised over his perceived defensive failings in the past, the statistics indicate that he did a largely solid job against Leicester upon reverting to right-back.
As per Sofascore, he made one interception and one tackle, had a 100% success rate for crosses and long passes, and completed 44 of his 46 passes in total (96%). He lost possession just three times while on the pitch, a vast improvement on his match average of 21.5 in last season’s Premier League.
There were still some aspects of his play which can be improved upon – he won just one duel on Sunday (50% success rate) and was dribbled past on one occasion.
To be fair to Gillespie, his critiquing of Trent’s tackling wasn’t over the top, and the 24-year-old may still feel there’s more to come from himself in a defensive sense.
All in all, though, his performance had more positive than negatives, and the England international should be able to make a big contribution from Liverpool this season whether he’s deployed at right-back or in his more recent midfield role.
#Ep83 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones