Defending
While it is easy for us to get carried away by Alexander-Arnold’s phenomenal offensive stats, let us not forget that primarily he is a right-back and should possess adequate defensive qualities as well.
A major part of defending is tackling and the Premier League is known for its physicality and defenders lunging in for the ball. More so for full-backs who have to keep tricky wingers at bay for the majority of the 90 minutes. However, it is worrying to see that Alexander-Arnold ranks a mere 47[SUP]th[/SUP] in the leader board for tackles, a fair distance behind the top.
| | | |
| | Tackles | |
| 1. | Ricardo Pereira • Leicester City | 122 |
| 2. | Aaron Wan-Bissaka • Manchester Utd | 109 |
| 3. | Declan Rice • West Ham | 93 |
| 4. | Wilfred Ndidi • Leicester City | 85 |
| 5. | Djibril Sidibé • Everton | 83 |
| 6. | James McArthur • Crystal Palace | 82 |
| 7. | James Ward-Prowse • Southampton | 79 |
| | Jonny Castro • Wolves | 79 |
| 9. | João Moutinho • Wolves | 78 |
| 10. | Pierre Højbjerg • Southampton | 77 |
| | Frederic Guilbert • Aston Villa | 77 |
| | César Azpilicueta • Chelsea | |
| 47. | Trent Alexander-Arnold • Liverpool | 45 |
His tendency to get high up the field so often leaves space for opposition attackers to exploit and most tackles he makes are higher up the field to suit Liverpool’s style of the ‘gegenpress’. Here is an example of the high press adopted.
In Liverpool’s famous Champions League match against Barcelona at Anfield, Klopp enforced his style of pressing high to win possession. That can be seen from the picture below where Alexander-Arnold spots a pass and moves higher to attack the ball and tackle the man.
Trent Alexander-Arnold pressing high in a UCL game vs Barcelona – Credit: fourfourtwo.com
However, this leaves a huge pocket of space in behind and had the Barcelona players shifted play to exploit this gap, they may have got better results. So the full-back’s defensive stat does not look as bad as it first seemed, due to his style of high pressing to suit the team’s tactical style.
Another important point to note is that Liverpool’s starting formation of 4-3-3 eventually shifts to a 3-4-3 when attacking and a 5-2-3 when defending. Allowing the defensive midfielder, usually Jordan Henderson or Fabinho to slot in between the centre-backs and provide some cover for them and allow Alexander-Arnold and fellow full-back Andrew Robertson to play higher up the pitch. (Ive also discussed this many times as well in this thread. Using TAA at RB necesitates other strategies to be employed by his coach to account for the negatives brought on by his offensively focused palystyle).
As a result, although the youngster’s defensive capabilities have been a subject of argument and discussion, it is safe to say that Klopp and Liverpool have been able to create a system where the full-back can attack to his potential while contributing defensively as well.
Working on his defensive abilities would do him no harm though – especially his recovery and tackling – and this may finally allow him to stake a claim for the status of the best full-back in the world and also help him cement a place in the England national team, who currently make use of different tactics.
