Tag: Trent Alexander-Arnold

Trent Alexander-Arnold is leaving Liverpool, the club he has been at since the age of six, he said on social media platform X on Monday, calling it the hardest decision of his life.

He has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid who reportedly made an offer for the England defender just before the January transfer window opened.

Born in Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold rose through the youth ranks to become one of the best right backs in the world, winning two Premier League titles, the Champions League and the Club World Cup with the English team.

“This club has been my whole life – my whole world – for 20 years,” Alexander-Arnold said in his statement. “From the Academy right through until now, the support and love I have felt from everyone inside and outside of the club will stay with me forever. I will forever be in debt to you all.

“But, I have never known anything else and this decision is about experiencing a new challenge, taking myself out of my comfort zone and pushing myself both professionally and personally.”

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The 26-year-old frequently played in a hybrid midfield role for Liverpool in recent seasons, operating as a full back when out of possession but moving into midfield during attacks.

Alexander-Arnold, who made his senior debut in 2016, has racked up 352 appearances for the Reds, scoring 23 goals and winning eight major honours, including this season’s Premier League title.

He had been in discussions with Liverpool about a new deal but whereas Mohamed Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk signed contract extensions with the club, Alexander-Arnold chose to move on.

“Alexander-Arnold will depart with our gratitude and appreciation for his contribution during a sustained period of success,” the club said in a statement.

Alexander-Arnold is hoping the news of his departure is not a distraction over Liverpool’s final three games of the season.

“I’m just hoping that we’re able to carry on winning games, the noise (from my decision) doesn’t take away from the fact of what we’ve achieved this season,” he said.

“It has been an amazing season. It has been amazing to be part of it and I just hope that everyone is able to maybe not dwell on this news for too long and be able to celebrate what the rest of the lads have done.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold has said he wants to be remembered as the “greatest right-back to have played football” as he set his sights on winning the Ballon d’Or. The Liverpool defender, who is out of contract at the end of the season and is admired by Real Madrid, has openly admitted he regards himself as an “elite” player and has ambitions to become the first full-back to win the Ballon d’Or.

The 2024 ceremony takes place in Paris on Monday with Real’s Vinícius Júnior the leading contender to win the men’s award and Barcelona’s Aitana Bonmatí in line to defend her crown in the women’s section. Alexander-Arnold is not on the list of nominees for the 68th edition of the awards.

However, the 26-year-old has his eyes on the prize and suggested he would rather win the Ballon d’Or over the World Cup.

“I believe I can [win the Ballon d’Or],” Alexander-Arnold told Sky Sports. “I want to be the first full-back to ever do it. It’s only the morning after you retire that you can look in the mirror and say: ‘I gave it everything I got’.

“It doesn’t matter how many trophies you win, or how many medals you’ve got. It matters what you give to the game and if you reach your full potential.”

Real’s former star Roberto Carlos was runner-up in the 2002 Ballon d’Or while right-back Lucy Bronze came second to USA’s Megan Rapinoe in 2019.

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Two full-backs are in the mix for the men’s 2024 award – Real’s Dani Carvajal Bayer Leverkusen’s Alejandro Grimaldo – but are unlikely to take the top prize.

Asked how he wants to be remembered after he hangs up his boots, Alexander-Arnold said: “A legend of football, someone who changed the game.

“That is my main thing – ‘don’t play the game; change the game’. I want that legacy of being the greatest right-back to have played football.

“I have got to reach for the stars and that’s where I believe my ceiling can go.”

Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil van Dijk are out of contract at the end of the season, and Liverpool have yet to secure their long-term futures despite ongoing talks. All three players can speak to foreign clubs about a free transfer from 1 January.

Madrid were linked with the Liverpool right-back, a good friend of Jude Bellingham, even before losing Dani Carvajal for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury. This week Marca, the Spanish sports daily with close ties to the European champions, ran a front-page headline that claimed Liverpool “already know that he [Alexander-Arnold] will not renew”. Liverpool denies that is the case, and Slot believes any attempt to destabilize the 26-year-old is doomed to fail.

“I think you underestimate our players,” said the Liverpool head coach. “These players are used to being linked with all the top clubs daily, if they have contracts or not. If you think they’re disturbed by this interest then you don’t do justice to how strong they are mentally. This is part of our job. This is part of the world we are living in. You just focus on what you have to do.

“Maybe if you’re 17 or 18 years of age it could be difficult for you. But Trent has won the league, has won the Champions League; Virgil and Mo have the same. I don’t think that is a problem for them to perform and that’s what we see at the moment because they’re playing well.”

Liverpool’s meeting with Arsenal in April had a profound impact on last year’s title destiny. That same day was also potentially defining in this season’s race.

Should Jürgen Klopp win a second Premier League title in May, his side’s rapid improvement will be retraced to Arsenal’s trip to Anfield in April and the ‘reinvention’ of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

After a turbulent season culminating in a comprehensive defeat by Real Madrid in the Champions League and a hammering by Manchester City at the Etihad, Klopp and his coaching team redesigned Liverpool’s formation and the revamp began with Alexander-Arnold’s hybrid role, switching between right-back and central midfield.

The 2-2 draw with Arsenal was the first time Alexander-Arnold had licence to roam. Liverpool went 10 games unbeaten for the rest of the season and have lost just once in 17 games of the current campaign.

Alexander-Arnold remembers receiving his new instructions with enthusiasm, his days as an ‘orthodox’ full-back – if he ever was that – well and truly over.

 “Initially, when the manager and Pep Lijnders [assistant coach] talked to me about it in the week leading up to the game, it was something that I was excited about,” recalls Alexander-Arnold.

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“I had obviously seen other teams doing it and then to be asked to do it I thought it would challenge me. It is something that I have massively enjoyed and the team has adapted to it. A lot of focus goes on to me and it is kind of painted as the system is because of me and I am the biggest change just because I shift there.

“But, technically, everyone shifts around. The back three shifts around, you have the midfield, the two 8s then push up and the wingers kind of drop a little bit deeper so everyone moves. Everyone has adapted well.

“We have had a lot of changes but the system is working and you can see that even when I have not been in the team as well. When I was injured briefly in September we still continued to do it with Joe [Gomez] and Conor Bradley can do it really well as we saw in pre-season before he got his injury. It is more about a system rather than who plays in there.”

Alexander-Arnold acknowledges it is not a unique tactic as Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta used their full-backs in a similar way.

But the 25-year-old has sought to put his own spin on the position as he did as a marauding right-back who was more like a winger.

“I study the game anyway. I like to think that I watch a lot of football, I watch a lot of games and I see different systems and different players playing and how they interpret it and what they are asked to do,” he says.

“But the main thing for me was to try and execute what they wanted from me and how I could bring the best out of me and the team. That is my aim no matter where I am asked to play and how I am asked to play.

“It has changed and it has evolved over time. Some games you will see I am not in the middle as much, some games I am in there all the time.

“We have analysts and great coaches and an amazing manager giving us information as to where the space might be and where I can get on the ball.”

Alexander-Arnold cites examples of being man-marked and realising he has to improvise within games.

“Thinking back to the Villa game in September, when we won 3-0 and I got injured [later in the match] – in that game I was very deep and I came right out of the block and I was in the backline and getting the ball,” he says.