Trent Alexander Arnold | Real Madrid working on deal (Ornstein)

GuybrushThreepwood said:
On a general note, I don’t blame any player at any club for running down their contract. In this modern day era, the big name players command huge transfer fees, and PSR regulations have reduced the ability of other European clubs to pay those sums. So running down their contracts down to at least one year of expiry, redirects power away from their clubs on to them, and allows them to exert greater control over which club they end up at.
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Yeah, the market is very inflated and on the other hand you have situations such as Harry Kane or even Pogba where the club ask for silly money while the player wants to leave them.

Part of it is caused by clubs overpaying for player and putting them huge wages and then struggling to find clubs willing to match that price tag when trying to move them on.

The other option would be to include a sell on clause like Haaland did that activates after certain amount of years.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
That came to mind because I saw it live, there are lots of examples online, not hard to find. Stuff like this:







https://www.empireofthekop.com/2025/01/15/trent-pass-salah-forest-liverpool/
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I expect that level of passing from all players. I'm not sure what was special about that. Has the skill of players declined to such a extent that we now celebrate the ordinary?

I blame this on pep. He took players of high footballing iq and drilled it out of them to become systematic players where you are not allowed to for think for yourself.
 
Really hope he does well but I’ve never been that convinced. Yes he can ping a great ball - but so can many players. A right back - he’s not great. Not sure he will be so exposed in Spain but good luck to him.

Shameful how the scousers have turned on him. Ffs who wanted want sun and sangria and a big wedge of cash?
 
Kelly15 said:
I expect that level of passing from all players. I'm not sure what was special about that. Has the skill of players declined to such a extent that we now celebrate the ordinary?

I blame this on pep. He took players of high footballing iq and drilled it out of them to become systematic players where you are not allowed to for think for yourself.
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I don't know what sort of football you're watching then, he's probably the best long range passer from wide areas in the league since Beckham. He does stuff other players don't do, Liverpool have been very successful with him as one of their main players for 7-8 years. Maybe you know, he's above average at passing? This 'oh is that it?' stuff is tedious.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
I don't know what sort of football you're watching then, he's probably the best long range passer from wide areas in the league since Beckham. He does stuff other players don't do, Liverpool have been very successful with him as one of their main players for 7-8 years. Maybe you know, he's above average at passing? This 'oh is that it?' stuff is tedious.
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He is an excellent passer, but I think this statement shows his passing ability is slightly overblown. I tend to agree that we used to see a lot more of this type of passing in the 00's, I also think the same about his crossing too.
Because we don't see it as much now, when we see a really good passer we tend to over rate it. Maybe I am wrong though, but I don't see Trent consistently droppings balls on players correct foot like Beckham did, he is more in the Fabregas category
 
Cassidy said:
He is an excellent passer, but I think this statement shows his passing ability is slightly overblown. I tend to agree that we used to see a lot more of this type of passing in the 00's, I also think the same about his crossing too.
Because we don't see it as much now, when we see a really good passer we tend to over rate it. Maybe I am wrong though, but I don't see Trent consistently droppings balls on players correct foot like Beckham did, he is more in the Fabregas category
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I think this is it really. We see a lot less of the type of long raking passes than we use to, hence when we see it now, we tend to overhype it. There’s no doubting he’s a top class passer but he’s not in the same category as a Beckham or Scholes, who used to ping outrageous balls multiple times a match. Trent does it multiple times a season. Simply because football has changed.

The same has become true of long range wonder goals. They used to happen almost weekly. Now they are few and far between, so we tend to overrate them or a players long range shooting ability, when it does happen.
 
Quite the attacking team that is being assembled, finding balance might be an issue.

Mendy might be where attacks goes to die, but we need him, or someone else of his profile, that is more defensive minded on that other side, with so many attacking minded players.
 
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Cassidy said:
He is an excellent passer, but I think this statement shows his passing ability is slightly overblown. I tend to agree that we used to see a lot more of this type of passing in the 00's, I also think the same about his crossing too.
Because we don't see it as much now, when we see a really good passer we tend to over rate it. Maybe I am wrong though, but I don't see Trent consistently droppings balls on players correct foot like Beckham did, he is more in the Fabregas category
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Maybe something in that, but just for example I watched Liverpool play Forest this season and I think I counted him play 6 brilliant defence splitting/stretching passes in one half. That was without an assist. Only De Bruyne and Salah have more assists since he started playing regularly.
 
B20 said:
:lol:
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He must feel very disappointed in 99% of professional footballers then! Ludicrous take.

Whether it’s a generational thing and we see long range passing less frequently, does not negate the fact his passing ability is outstanding.
 
simonhch said:
I think this is it really. We see a lot less of the type of long raking passes than we use to, hence when we see it now, we tend to overhype it. There’s no doubting he’s a top class passer but he’s not in the same category as a Beckham or Scholes, who used to ping outrageous balls multiple times a match. Trent does it multiple times a season. Simply because football has changed.

The same has become true of long range wonder goals. They used to happen almost weekly. Now they are few and far between, so we tend to overrate them or a players long range shooting ability, when it does happen.
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Can I ask how often you watch Liverpool play for 90 minutes?

Trent is the best long passer from the right channel by far. He probably plays 3/4 per game, not a season.

Trent has 64 assists from RB compared to 80 for Beckham. He is the best passer since Bekham from that channel.
 
simonhch said:
I think this is it really. We see a lot less of the type of long raking passes than we use to, hence when we see it now, we tend to overhype it. There’s no doubting he’s a top class passer but he’s not in the same category as a Beckham or Scholes, who used to ping outrageous balls multiple times a match. Trent does it multiple times a season. Simply because football has changed.

The same has become true of long range wonder goals. They used to happen almost weekly. Now they are few and far between, so we tend to overrate them or a players long range shooting ability, when it does happen.
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I don't know about the comparison to Beckham and Scholes but I actually think football is changing in a way that makes Trent's skill set extremely valuable.

The tactical trend everybody is talking about now is transition play - less ponderous positional play, quicker transitions between defense and attack. Liverpool has been a highly transitional team for years now and this year has been by far the most effective transitional team in the PL, scoring 10 more goals off transitions than the side with the second most such goals. What do you need for lethal transitional play? Fast forwards who can finish for one thing (ie, Mo Salah). But it only works if you have defenders who can play accurate medium to long balls immediately after winning possession, without having to take five touches or recycle the ball first. Nobody better at that in the world than TAA. And he'll be a nightmare playing those balls to Mbappe, Vini, and Rodrygo.
 
Both Liverpool and England players get much easier rides in the media and are almost built up to be way more than they are. They are described in glowing terms and their best games highlighted and broken down. Their errors glossed over or ignored. It happens all the time.

That won’t be the case in Spain, and I think he will get absolutely hammered for some of the criminal defending he has done over the last few years.

There is a lazy arrogance there, and if he applies the same attitude out there, he will get eaten alive.
 
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Maluco said:
Both Liverpool and England players get much easier rides in the media and are almost built up to be. They are described in glowing terms and their best games highlighted and broken down. Their errors glossed over or ignored. It happens all the time.

That won’t be the case in Spain, and I think he will get absolutely hammered for some of the criminal defending he has done over the last few years.

There is a lazy arrogance there, and if he applies the same attitude out there, he will get eaten alive.
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I think that it happens all over the world, not just England. It's true that if an English player does good, he'll be praised to heaven by the Media and this media has the biggest exposure in the world, but the same happens on every Traditional League, they mainly just have less expsoure. Yet there might be a little more leniant to condone or turn a blind eye and give more time to recover than other Leagues when a certain player it's not ina a good run, well maybe. The worse part it's the EPL excessive praise (and what apparently it's need to play there) and demerit of other Leagues, in such aspect they live quite out of touch.

If he creates lots of assists, like Jude converted lots of goals (no matter how), since the very first minute, he won't be bothered that much, specially for being the new boy in town.

Yet it's true that Madrid specially it's quite a hungry animal in terms of needing and creating news, so if he struggles at some point in some area, they will be all over him. On the other hand since it looks there will be no huge price over his head, that will help a lot.
Also sometimes they just not fully accept a player, no matter what, I always felt that with Valverde as great as he is and even how he was praised many times, the Press it's particulary nasty at times, or better said not that incline to glowing hiperboles with him. Other players had it easier. If him for some reason land on his feet, he'll be treated in a more calm style, if not the Press can be quite annoying.
 
When a player is great, 99% of people kind of agree. Same goes the other way. Trent is the only player that is regarded great and poor at the same time.
 
He will do well for Real. He is going to ping balls all day for Mbappe and Jnr. Defensively, it's not going to help them a whole lot but that's probably why they are having a look at Saliba as well.
 
Changeisgood said:
He will do well for Real. He is going to ping balls all day for Mbappe and Jnr. Defensively, it's not going to help them a whole lot but that's probably why they are having a look at Saliba as well.
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Valverde will sort it, no qualms.
 
romufc said:
Can I ask how often you watch Liverpool play for 90 minutes?

Trent is the best long passer from the right channel by far. He probably plays 3/4 per game, not a season.

Trent has 64 assists from RB compared to 80 for Beckham. He is the best passer since Bekham from that channel.
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Unfortunately way too much. My brother is inexplicably a Liverpool fan, and a former professional footballer himself. I know former pros are usually a bit thick, but he has a PhD, so I’ll reluctantly admit he’s smart too. We’ve discussed this topic more than I’d usually be comfortable doing, and are largely in agreement. As a Liverpool fan he agrees that Trent can’t be bracketed with the likes of Beckham and Scholes in terms of long passing.

But, you know, so much of this is qualitative not quantitative. The stats can only be taken so far. There is such an over reliance on them today when it comes to debates, but I respect the differing subjective points of view you put forward.
 
Powderfinger said:
I don't know about the comparison to Beckham and Scholes but I actually think football is changing in a way that makes Trent's skill set extremely valuable.

The tactical trend everybody is talking about now is transition play - less ponderous positional play, quicker transitions between defense and attack. Liverpool has been a highly transitional team for years now and this year has been by far the most effective transitional team in the PL, scoring 10 more goals off transitions than the side with the second most such goals. What do you need for lethal transitional play? Fast forwards who can finish for one thing (ie, Mo Salah). But it only works if you have defenders who can play accurate medium to long balls immediately after winning possession, without having to take five touches or recycle the ball first. Nobody better at that in the world than TAA. And he'll be a nightmare playing those balls to Mbappe, Vini, and Rodrygo.
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Personally I would say Trent’s biggest weapon is his crossing, not his passing, and those delicious whipped in balls with the perfect amount of curl that makes them close but not close enough for a GL are still deadly today but I believe would’ve been even more deadly back in the days of your RVNs and Shearer’s of this world. The sort of balls Cole and Yorke would’ve scored a boat load of headers off, as they did with Becks.
 
simonhch said:
Unfortunately way too much. My brother is inexplicably a Liverpool fan, and a former professional footballer himself. I know former pros are usually a bit thick, but he has a PhD, so I’ll reluctantly admit he’s smart too. We’ve discussed this topic more than I’d usually be comfortable doing, and are largely in agreement. As a Liverpool fan he agrees that Trent can’t be bracketed with the likes of Beckham and Scholes in terms of long passing.

But, you know, so much of this is qualitative not quantitative. The stats can only be taken so far. There is such an over reliance on them today when it comes to debates, but I respect the differing subjective points of view you put forward.
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Who did your brother play for? Harchester?
 
FriedClams said:
Who did your brother play for? Harchester?
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Exactly. Scored a hatrick of bicycle kicks on the last day of the season to simultaneously win them the cup and save them from relegation. Then he shagged the gaffer’s wife.

Or Sheffield Wednesday, back in the early 90s, until he tore his Achilles, which pretty much wrecked his career and led down the academic and corporate route he’s been on since.

It’s hard to remember which.
 
simonhch said:
Exactly. Scored a hatrick of bicycle kicks on the last day of the season to simultaneously win them the cup and save them from relegation. Then he shagged the gaffer’s wife.

Or Sheffield Wednesday, back in the early 90s, until he tore his Achilles, which pretty much wrecked his career and led down the academic and corporate route he’s been on since.

It’s hard to remember which.
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Amazing show
 
Just gonna add here that TAA is in the 98th percentile for passes attempted, and 22nd Percentile for passes completed. Maybe he should focus less on spamming through balls
 
FriedClams said:
Just gonna add here that TAA is in the 98th percentile for passes attempted, and 22nd Percentile for passes completed. Maybe he should focus less on spamming through balls
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Yea that's a big part of of, he does a lot of spam.
 
duffer said:
Does this mean they'll have zero scousers in their first XI? Has that ever been the case before?
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2015-2016 season was the gap year between Gerrard's retirement and TAA's emergence. I guess you could say Jon Flanagan was around but he was far less of a starting XI player than Curtis Jones currently is.
 
I always found it interesting that the premier league, despite being the biggest league there is, keeps losing big English players like him, Kane or Bellingham.
 
duffer said:
The premier league never had Bellingham to lose.
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I don’t mean it literal. Usually, I’d expect that the best English talent plays for English top clubs. Having those three guys, easily among the highest profile English players, playing abroad is just a little odd to me. No criticism intended. Just an observation.
 
HTG said:
I don’t mean it literal. Usually, I’d expect that the best English talent plays for English top clubs. Having those three guys, easily among the highest profile English players, playing abroad is just a little odd to me. No criticism intended. Just an observation.
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I mean I wouldn't see it as unusual in any other job that someone that's in one company for many years wants a fresh challenge and takes a job for more money with the biggest company in the world.

As for Kane, he gave his best years to the prem and to English football.
 
HTG said:
I always found it interesting that the premier league, despite being the biggest league there is, keeps losing big English players like him, Kane or Bellingham.
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Not much mystery there. Levy would rather have sold their stadium to Arsenal than sell Kane to a PL rival, and Real Madrid are Real Madrid.
 
HTG said:
I always found it interesting that the premier league, despite being the biggest league there is, keeps losing big English players like him, Kane or Bellingham.
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No matter how big the league is, no club, apart from maybe us (not now but certainly was before), can match the aura of Madrid and Barca. It's really only to those clubs that England has lost its best players. Other than Kane, no star from the EPL has gone to Germany and none I can remember have gone to the Serie A at their peak.
 
hasanejaz88 said:
No matter how big the league is, no club, apart from maybe us (not now but certainly was before), can match the aura of Madrid and Barca. It's really only to those clubs that England has lost its best players. Other than Kane, no star from the EPL has gone to Germany and none I can remember have gone to the Serie A at their peak.
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Funny how quickly Mane is forgotten.
 
HTG said:
I always found it interesting that the premier league, despite being the biggest league there is, keeps losing big English players like him, Kane or Bellingham.
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The reality is the opposite, very few players go abroad as a % of the total English players in the PL or even as a % of the national team. Compared to any other nation. The national team has actually suffered from this I think as most of the players only know the frenetic English game and aren't used to anything else.

Palmer is a good example, I just can't imagine him playing outside of England, even London seems a bit of a struggle and he'll probably move back to MCR eventually.
 
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