Has Trent Alexander-Arnold really improved defensively under Slot?

Liverpool currently sit top of the Premier League table and things couldn’t be going much better for Arne Slot.

The Reds’ new head coach has led them to victory in five of their first six league games as well as gaining maximum points so far in the UEFA Champions League and kicking off the team’s defence of the Carabao Cup with a 5-1 thrashing of West Ham.

Under Slot, a number of Liverpool’s key players have stepped up and impressed this season and some supporters have been surprised by the improvement they’ve seen in such a short period of time.

Liverpool have improved defensively as a unit, but one player who has received individual praise for his defensive improvement is Trent Alexander-Arnold.

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Trent praised for his defensive improvement

Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League game against Bologna, Reds icon Danny Murphy was full of praise for Alexander-Arnold.

“Trent’s defending and his one-on-one defending and his physical – he looks sharp and quicker – and that’s got to be something to do with the coaching and the training,” Murphy told talkSPORT.

Although the 25-year-old still offers a great deal going forward, it is his defensive improvement that is earning both himself and his new head coach plaudits.

Trent is part of a defence that has kept four clean sheets from their first six league games and is a key member of the unit that has Liverpool looking so defensively sound under Slot.

What do the numbers say about Trent’s improvement?

It is early in the season and this means that the sample size under Slot is much smaller than the sample size when comparing to data from last season, but there is still a comparison to be made.

In the first six games of the Premier League this season, Trent has averaged 2.73 tackles per 90 minutes compared to his 1.63 per 90 last season in the competition.

This 2.73 represents a career high for Trent – that number is likely to balance out as the season goes on but it is evidence of immediate improvement.

Trent’s tackle success rate has also risen from 31% in the 2023/24 season to 56.3% under Slot this campaign. This shows that Trent’s tackles per 90 hasn’t just increased because he’s attempting a lot more but because he is completing a higher proportion of them.

Liverpool’s vice-captain is also yet to make an error that has led to an opponent taking a shot, something he did on five occasions last season in just 28 appearances in the league.

Trent hasn’t shown massive improvement in every stat though, his blocks per 90 sit at almost exactly the same level as last season (0.92 vs 0.91) however last season was the highest Trent has achieved in this metric since the 2017/18 season.

Has Slot really improved Trent?

It is too early to say for definite that Slot has already made Trent a better defender, but the 25-year-old is currently outperforming many of his numbers from last season and Liverpool as a team look much more defensively secure.

The shadow looming over Trent’s impressive displays this season has been his contract situation, which is fuelling uncertainty about the player’s future at Anfield.

Negotiations over a new contract that would see Trent remain a Liverpool player beyond the end of the season are reportedly in the works and supporters will be hoping that this improvement continues under Slot for many seasons to come.