Sam McGuire: Liverpool can only replace Trent Alexander-Arnold in the AGGREGATE

Trent Alexander-Arnold is underrated.

Just writing that feels wrong. He’s considered, by most, to be one of the best players ever in his position. A playmaker from the right-back position, he more than played his part in Liverpool winning everything. Not bad for someone who can’t defend, right?

Over the years, I’ve taken him for granted. I haven’t meant to do that, but when you see someone playing outrageous pass after outrageous pass, across countless years, you do become a little numb to it, don’t you?

He has to do something special for people to take note of it now. After all, the extraordinary is the norm for him. And this has been his downfall, so to speak. He’s expected to do something spectacular. When he does, so what? When he doesn’t, he’s no longer invested. Those are the two absolutes he’s judged on and against.

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The contract situation hasn’t helped his cause recently. It is inevitable that people will downplay his achievements, talents and abilities when they fear they’re going to lose him. It makes it easier to almost get over him.

You hone in on his faults and weaknesses to make yourself feel better about the fact he might be plying his trade elsewhere next season, almost trying to convince yourself that, if he does leave, it won’t be an issue.

It is easier to replace him if you don’t really rate him.

Right now, the search criteria seems to be:

Can they run more than the England international?

Can they defend better (whatever that actually means) than the Liverpool No66?

People have given Jeremie Frimpong their vote. This feels slightly reactive given he’s not really shown he can be a right-back at the top level. He’s a wing-back for Bayer Leverkusen.

There have been links to the Brazilian right-back Wesley. The club like the South American market but €40million for a 21-year-old full-back with no European experience doesn’t feel like a Liverpool move, does it?

The right-back market is a difficult one to shop in right now. Especially when you’re used to having someone like Alexander-Arnold at your disposal. Everyone else feels….underwhelming.

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Conor Bradley might have a shot of succeeding him, but injuries are making this a difficult situation to assess. You can’t really commit to someone if you don’t know they’re going to be around much.

Tino Livaramento would cost a fortune and he’s probably fifth on the list of Newcastle players who should make the move to Anfield.

Then there’s the whole are you going to pay £50million or more for a right-back conversation. A position that isn’t usually a game-breaker or a match-winner.

And this brings me back to Alexander-Arnold.

He is underrated. Painfully so.

Liverpool aren’t going to be able to replace him. It is as simple as that. If he’s leaving, the Reds need to rip up everything and start again with how they build out from the back and how they look to create. Replacing what he brings to the team is not going to be cheap. But it is very much a necessity.

Look at what happened in the Carabao Cup final.

Jarell Quansah, a centre-back by trade, was used at right-back. He wasn’t ever going to fill Alexander-Arnold’s shoes but it did highlight that it isn’t as straightforward as simply using anyone at full-back. He completed 75% of his passes, failed to create a single chance and his involvement, not exclusively I must add, seemed to nullify Mohamed Salah. He attempted six long passes and completed just one of them. He didn’t attempt a single cross at Wembley.

If we look at the last time Bradley started a league game. It was the 2-2 with Everton. He played 61 minutes, completed 81% of his passes and didn’t create a single chance for the Reds. He had a 20% success rate with long passes too. That was another game in which Liverpool struggled to create anything. It was another game in which Salah was, by his standards, anonymous. Yes, he scored and assisted, but he had just two shots, created just one chance and finished having had just 54 touches.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is running the show for Liverpool

Alexander-Arnold has been one of Liverpool’s most important players going forward this season and nobody appears to have noticed.

Likely because Salah is stealing the show, but he shouldn’t be going under the radar in the manner he is.

He’s racked up six assists, the second highest for Liverpool behind the No11. He’s carved out 51 chances and 14 big chances. Only Salah can beat these numbers. His xA for the season is 6.7, just slightly behind the Egyptian international, but the No66 has fewer minutes to his name. On a per 90 basis, Alexander-Arnold leads the way with 0.28. For added context, Bradley’s xA90 is 0.06 in the English top-flight in his limited minutes this season.

If we look at how he compares to those across the Premier League, he ranks sixth for big chances created, joint-eighth for chances created, fourth for xA and sixth for xA90.

He’s still a creative maestro. His xA this season is already higher than it was for the 2023/24 campaign. His xA90 is on par with the 2022/23 season. Alexander-Arnold has also been one of Liverpool’s best tacklers this term, with only Wataru Endo (3.9) and Kostas Tsimikas (2.7) winning more than him.

Losing the No66 would be a huge blow and I think we all need to ready ourselves for that eventuality. We need to accept it'd be a blow though rather than look to diminish just how brilliant he is.

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