“The sport has advanced now,” says former Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers and Republic of Eire participant Jason McAteer, who, like Alexander-Arnold, performed as a right-back and a central midfielder throughout his profession.
“In the present day’s full-back is much more like a wing-back. You have to get ahead. You have to get balls into the field. And you’ve got this hybrid position the place you come into midfield.
“Trent has obtained that many attributes that you have to get him into the workforce. You have a look at Trent now and he is grown up, he is advanced.”
That evolution has seen Alexander-Arnold’s affect at Anfield develop. With a variety of passing, imaginative and prescient and creativity honed throughout his previous as a midfielder, his distinctive skillset has allowed him to grow to be a playmaker from full-back.
Within the 2018-19 season – the primary marketing campaign wherein he began greater than half of Liverpool’s Premier League video games – Alexander-Arnold registered 12 assists, the third-highest tally within the prime flight.
His 13 assists the next season was second solely to Kevin de Bruyne, and solely team-mate Mohamed Salah bettered his tally of 12 for the 2021-22 marketing campaign.
Final season, Alexander-Arnold’s common of 5.25 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes within the Premier League and Europa League ranked within the 99th percentile amongst full-backs in Europe’s prime 5 divisions.
He was additionally within the 99th percentile when it got here to anticipated assisted objectives per 90 (0.37) and passes tried (87.71) and the 98th percentile for progressive passes (8.69).
He ranked eighth amongst outfielders within the Premier League for whole profitable lengthy passes (147) and third for switches of play (32).
“Should you have a look at the assists from earlier in his profession, they got here from vast,” Jenkins says. “Extra not too long ago, he is been capable of transfer inside into the half-space and ship from there. Trent has had a perfect skillset to adapt to how the sport has modified.
“Should you see footage of him enjoying when he was little, he was mainly the identical participant. You’d see all of the driving runs, the bodily attributes, his ball-striking and his passing over distance. He is simply tailored his strengths into no matter place he performs.”
