‘World’s best right back’ Trent Alexander-Arnold epitomises struggling Liverpool’s woes

Michael Owen reminded BT Sport viewers on Wednesday that Liverpool fans had seen this coming. The team have played six Premier League games this campaign and if we can leave to one side the thrashing of Bournemouth, the theme has been consistent underperformance.

“Why” is indeed the question. “Give me time to think about it,” Klopp said on Wednesday.

Just five weeks ago, Liverpool played Manchester City in the Community Shield. Of course, the general view is that no one cares about this trophy, that even the participants aren’t bothered. Yet anyone who watched Liverpool’s 3-1 victory witnessed a fiercely competitive contest during which it was evident that these teams have no love for each other.

Through the first half an hour, City couldn’t cope with Liverpool’s incessant pressing and as a consequence, their new centre forward Erling Haaland could barely get into the game.

Liverpool went on to win 3-1 and it was Darwin Nunez who people were talking about. Liverpool’s new centre forward had come on in the second half, won the penalty that put his team 2-1 ahead and then scored the third.

Liverpool seemed set for another good season. It was a false dawn.

A week later they drew 2-2 at newly promoted Fulham while City dominated West Ham United in their 2-0 victory at the London Stadium. From there, the teams went in different directions. “The attitude was not right at the beginning,” Klopp said about the performance at Craven Cottage. Two weeks later the attitude at the start of the game against Manchester United at Old Trafford was even worse.

The startling thing about that 2-1 loss was the lack of fight. United’s first goal that evening exposed serious shortcomings in Liverpool’s defence. Anthony Elanga worked a simple one-two with Christian Eriksen, a give-and-go that got the winger clear of Trent Alexander-Arnold. Joe Gomez tried to close down Elanga but the cutback still found the unmarked Jadon Sancho.

What happened next was, from Liverpool’s point of view, alarming. Receiving the ball close to the penalty spot, Sancho took four touches before scoring with his fifth. The first two to tee up his shot, the third to drag the ball back and allow the lunging James Milner to slide past, the fourth to nudge the ball on to his right foot. As Sancho finally pulled the trigger, Bruno Fernandes pointed to the corner of the goal: just put it there.

Alexander-Arnold never looks good in these moments. As Elanga sprinted on to Eriksen’s pass, the Liverpool right back jogged slowly back towards his own goal, presuming he was temporarily out of the game.

Sancho then took all of those touches and Alexander-Arnold, realising there was still a chance, broke into a belated sprint. Alas, too late.

Milner was the only Liverpool player seriously trying to prevent the goal. He’d tracked Fernandes’s run, then tried to get to Sancho and his attempted block gave Virgil van Dijk the chance to get closer to the ball. Van Dijk stood as still as a statue, his arms pinned close to his sides. In the seconds after the goal, Milner almost lost his mind telling the central defender what he should have done.

So the alarm bells were ringing and you imagine that with Klopp being a good manager and Liverpool being a good team, things would soon change. They didn’t. Fortunate to beat Newcastle United, unimpressive against Everton and most recently taken apart in Naples. Napoli’s third goal was the one that best showed Liverpool’s players are no longer fighting for each other. The outstanding Khvicha Kvaratskhelia pushed the ball one side of Alexander-Arnold, ran around the other side and the poor fullback just gave up.

Tracking back, Harvey Elliott didn’t run as fast as he can and after the winger muscled his way past Gomez, the chance was comfortably finished by Giovanni Simeone. Liverpool’s problems are not all down to Alexander-Arnold. Gomez had a terrible night, Mohamed Salah did virtually nothing and though he played with the attitude that the team lacked, the 36-year-old Milner no longer has the legs for these kinds of evenings. The team’s energy and desire were nowhere near enough.

Klopp’s post-match observation was telling: “It looks a little like we have to reinvent ourselves. There’s a lot of things lacking. The fun part is we have to do that in the middle of a Premier League season and a Champions League season.”

He was, of course, being sarcastic. This team needed new energy this season, an infusion of new blood, seasoned players feeling insecure about their positions. That was the strategy that underpinned the success enjoyed by Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley.

There have been other difficult times during Klopp’s seven years at Anfield. He’s come through them. This one may be tougher because some of the fine players central to the team he built are beginning to look old. And the manager himself needs to look at his own performance. How difficult can it be to convince Alexander-Arnold that if a winger goes past him, he’s got to get back into position as quickly as he can?

A year ago, Gareth Southgate played Alexander-Arnold in midfield. It was an experiment that didn’t work. Klopp wasn’t impressed: “Why would you make the best right back in the world a midfielder?” Well, well! You’d find it hard to convince the young Georgia winger Kvaratskhelia he was up against the best right back in the world the other evening.

– The Sunday Times

Originally published as ‘World’s best right back’ Trent Alexander-Arnold epitomises struggling Liverpool’s woes