Shouldn’t play unless you have someone doing the Henderson role.
The shocking decline of Trent Alexander Arnold
- Thread starter lysglimt
- Start date
That's exactly what I thought, it's like watching Allis decline. Even with all the criticism he gets about his defending it's like he doesn't give a feck. He doesn't even put on the effort. I can easily see him changing teams going down and down.
Did he actually decline, or was everyone just getting manipulated by his crosses and passing?
He’s closer to forward rather than a defender.
TAA was never a good defender. When the midfield and forward line had the legs for it this liability was masked and wasn’t exposed on regular basis.
In the current Liverpool team he’s diabolical and easily usually the worst player on the pitch for them. He would either be benched or given an attacking role.
He's not even an average RB defending wise. He's became a total liability.
he struggles with positioning at full back it would be fun to see him try midfield
he shouldn’t play in the big games anymore, he’s such a low hanging fruit route to beating Liverpool, pathetic performance
I'm still baffled Ten Hag did not release Rashford on him.
Yeah, seemed like the obvious thing to do
What in the world happened to him? He looked like a championship player out there ffs.
Would he even necessarily be that greatly improved if moved to a more advanced role to get round the defensive issues ? He already gets forward a lot, and, based on current results, as a playmaker he'd just be a hipper, slimmer Charlie Adam (Liverpool rather than Blackpool) version ...
Wait, wait, does anyone remember when Liverpool fans were claiming that he was World class? 
I don't if Kimmich is an example. Kimmich is a center midfielder that started his career as a center midfielder, he was eventually used as a right back to cover for injuries and somehow made it work. TAA isn't a CM, he is a bad right back that can cross but has terrible positioning and workrate.
He’s still an excellent creator on the ball. Liverpool as a team and specifically their midfield have declined this year, Trent has always been underwhelming as a defender but their midfield always gave Trent the platform and cover he needed to play his game. This year it isn’t there so he is getting exposed more and more often (might be also an element that teams are getting used to playing Klopps Liverpool). Trent isn’t the only one struggling mind, their whole defensive game has struggled this season.
He let Grealish just wonder off for his goal. That's several times he's let players get away this season for goals.
TAA getting a lot of the focus but worth saying that Robertson was and has been atrocious too. Both their fullbacks having dire seasons.
And yet our manager decided not to play our best attacker against him.
ETH was overthinking that day.
There is a reason he was converted to a full back from a wide midfielder I think. If my memory serves me right he was a midfielder in their academy.
Do people still talk about him in the same breath as Cafu..
After that he ran into centre forward position and waved his arms around while city broke down the right again and made no effort to track back. I can see why Liverpool fans loved him when they had the quality to play without a right back but surely it's infuriating for them when they don't play that way and he allows players to stroll in to score with no attempt to close down
He totally should. Long may it continue.
I don't think you need to worry about positioning or even position on the pitch with him; mentally he looks like he's checked out as a footballer.
Speculation as to what's going on with him, but whatever it is, the guy is not applying himself as a footballer and if he had competition for his place, he would not see the pitch, and rightly so.
Speculation as to what's going on with him, but whatever it is, the guy is not applying himself as a footballer and if he had competition for his place, he would not see the pitch, and rightly so.
Robertson was really good for Scotland this break. I genuinely think the majority of what it comes down to is missing midfielders capable of covering for them. That was the main facet of the Liverpool system and with injuries and ageing players it’s all going Pete tong.
Wait, wait, does anyone remember when Liverpool fans were claiming that he was World class?
In the right setup (more as a wide midfielder) he was, he had superbs seasons. He's just not a world class "real" right back.
Even then everyone knew he wasn't a good defender. It was just a case of playing in a system where that didn't partucularly matter while his excellent qualities were maximised. And Liverpool this won multiple major trophies with him performing to a world class level in that specialist role.
It's no particular suprise that once that team/system broke down his obvious weaknessss would be exposed more. I don't think people were manipulated into thinking that wouldn't be the case at the time. That's just the nature of a set-up like that, some players suit some systems. Put this version of TAA back in that peak Liverpool side and he'd look somewhat better again.
But on top of that, questions should be asked about his attitude at times and his actual lack of development since then. He was 20/21 when he was winning the CL/PL, with plenty of time to improve on his weaknesses. He's now 24. Has he got better at anything in that time? That's on him and probably also his club for having him play most of his career there with no real competition.
He has the air of someone who has been an unquestioned starter since he was 19 and wasn't driven to actually improve on his weaknesses. Now they're being exposed regularly as he's not being protected in the same way anymore, with a dollop of extra individual mistakes on top.
Last edited:
No idea why it was locked. Strange.
Hag playing Bruno up against him at Anfield on the left will continue to baffle me.
Yeah, one of those unexplainable decisions really.
Yep agree with you on that.
Has definitely rediscovered some form, written off by many way too soon
Could make a thread now 'The shocking improvement of Trent Alexander-Arnold' he's been sensational since around the time of this thread. As good as he was bad earlier in the season. I'd be kinda worried Liverpool have worked something that will really click next season in that half-back positioning for him.
Along with the PEDs kicking in, I’d expect him to be world class again come August
It's brilliant from Klopp, this new role allows him to have the ball more and do far less defending. He's one of the best passers in the league and it's worrying seeing how much he and Liverpool have improved.
Honestly I don't know how many seasons it takes before teams finally catch on that he's the one making Liverpool tick. You mark him out of the game and Liverpool lose their best creative outlet.
They’ve been absolutely turd for weeks. They’ve been limping past opponents with the ref helping in three fixtures despite having a very easy run.
He has been outstanding in this role. Every time I've seen them he has ran the game with ease. It's something I'd be seriously looking at if I was Southgate because it's what England massively lack in terms of buildup.
He's doing pretty great as long as he doesn't have to defend. There was never really any doubt about his passing/crossing ability and how much of a creative force he is for Pool.
It took Klopp a long time to realise this didnt it?
Of course the one thing we havent seen is this against the better teams. In their run, its only been bottom half teams bar Brentford (1-0) and Spurs (who somehow threw away a 3-3).
The space is there (but its odd for me to say that as a United fan given ETH somehow thought putting bruno on the left, and rashford up top with Weghorst behind him was the way to hurt liverpool)
Brilliant ?? It's basic common sense