First Name: Trent
Surname: Alexander-Arnold
Squad Number: 66
Position: Defender
Height: 1.75m
Weight: 69kg
D.O.B: 07.10.1998.
Town of Birth: Liverpool
Country of Birth: England
Nationality: English
I think this is always the correct policy, giving a wage increase and then adding some time to the length of the existing contract (win win). The philosophy is to reward the player for current progress, and at the same time show other players (especially youth) that a contract will be improved upon if you perform (rather than looking for a transfer, e.g. Sterling, who’s contract improvement was mishandled apparently). You can look at it from the point of view of an employee, imagine performing at such a high level that your company is more profitable, yet having to work at your current wage till your new raise (maybe a year away?). Not very motivating imo, especially when you see others reap the benefit of your hard work over the previous year.
The flip side is someone like Woodburn, who was given a improved contract when he started performing, and now won’t be given an improved contract as he has really shat the bed since (hit his ceiling or maybe too many injuries, at the end of the day not his fault).
Don’t know if I’m imagining it but he seems to be coming on the inside a bit more so far, rather than always overlapping, he might have even more influence this season.
If Henderson left now, I’d fully expect Klopp to give captaincy to Van Dijk but Trent would have to be his successor in my view.
I opened the thread to write literally the same thing, I wrote it to my mate at the end of the game! It happened with AOC there, it happened with Elliott there. It’s not quite like Guardiola does it with his 50+ million pound fullbacks, I can’t quite tell if it’s a tactical instruction or just spur-of-the-moment thing but he seemed to stay wide in these two games only when majority of players were attacking the box and Salah was looking to cut inside. Is Klopp trying to tell us something or…?
I wonder if he’s been selected as Gini’s replacement as the 4th captain. Would imagine it would be between him and Robbo.
He certainly has looked imperious going forward in the two games. Thought he had a number of sloppy moments defensively today in the first half but McNeil is one of the tougher 1v1 tests he’ll have this season.
He did it last season as well, it’s not unusual although I can’t tell you the frequency of it. Midfielder goes wide, Trent inside channel.
There’s often someone in a more covering position though when we build and the opposition is balanced. This time it wasn’t, both full back and midfielder was very high, and maybe that’s what threw Burnley off and opened them up.
Edit: plus Mane moving in central. A lot of simultaneous movement, very nice
The thing I liked about it was how he was even in that position to make it. That’s the sort of switching and positional rotation that is needed to break down these sides who are good at getting men behind the ball.
Trevor Sinclair was saying the same thing on 5Live. Trent is coming inside and creating from there more often. He said Trent created 9 chances in the game, 7 of them from an inside right position, which he described as incredible.
I saw another comment on the BBC Live text that Trent’s got better passing range than Xavi and he’s doing it from right back.
Trent vs Xavi is an odd comparison to make, but it’s true if he’s talking about long passes. I’m guessing that’s what he means by ‘range’? Xavi was more about vision, control and decision making in tight spaces, mastering the short/medium passing game.