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Trent Alexander-Arnold has actually made it cool to be a full-back once again in such a way that hasn’t actually been seen given that Cafu and Roberto Carlos were tearing it up for Brazil twenty years earlier.
“Nobody wants to grow up to be a Gary Neville,” is the now never-ceasing line when said by Jamie Carragher a Monday Night Football reveal on Sky Sports.
But a great deal of individuals, those who are fans of Liverpool or otherwise, will sure as hell wish to mature to be an Alexander-Arnold.
The Reds may have lost 1-0 to Inter at Anfield on Tuesday night, ending a 12-game winning run in all competitors, however they advanced to the Champions League quarter-finals all the exact same and Alexander-Arnold’s efficiency in a double function was something unique.
Rarely have actually full-backs ever been as splendidly technically talented as 23-year-old, who is nearly solitarily taking the position to the next level.
Out of belongings, he was running as a standard right-back, making sure that Ivan Perisic couldn’t dart into harmful broad locations as he notoriously likes to do. With the ball, it was a rather various story, as he regularly tucked inside to successfully supply an additional imaginative body in midfield.
From that location of the pitch, Alexander-Arnold’s series of passing might be more impactful. It didn’t stop him getting forward down the flank, however what it did was guarantee Liverpool had far more assaulting versatility and were for that reason more unforeseeable to prevent.
On another night, a more medical Liverpool might have won the video game conveniently. As it was, they didn’t – Mohamed Salah two times struck the post and Luis Diaz was rejected just by an extraordinary block from Arturo Vidal – however what Alexander-Arnold did was not simply for one video game on one night.
This double function has legs that will go on to impact how both he and Liverpool play for years to come. In a larger context, it might eventually alter how world class full-backs play.
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