TRENT & ROBBOO
n Friday 8 November last year, 48 hours before Liverpool
welcomed Manchester City to Anfield in the Premier
League, manager Jürgen Klopp was asked by the club’s
website just how important Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy
Robertson had become to way his team plays.
“It’s part of our game, part of our plan, but it is not the only
plan,” he replied. “Modern football is like this: you have to be really
strong on the wings, however you do it, because the goal is in
the centre of the pitch and the area around the goal is the most
crowded area, so you have to ind a way to go through. That’s
in-behind, you pass it on the wings or you try to ind little spaces
between their lines. That’s how football is.”
It explains why Trent and Robbo are comfortably in the Premier
League’s top ive for individual touches of the ball this season, and
in Liverpool’s top three for both passes and minutes on the pitch,
alongside Virgil van Dijk.
The boss went on: “The wider you make the pitch, the bigger
the spaces in the centre. That’s why we try – you have to be a
force from pretty much everywhere.
“We try to use the skills of the two boys: good crosses, speed,
very lively, very brave and very it endurance-wise, so they can do
the defensive transition as well.”
Against City the pair combined to lethal efect to create
Liverpool’s second, much-celebrated goal, headed home by Mo
Salah. Guardian reporter Barney Ronay mused: “Alexander-Arnold
was, once again, sublime here. His range of passing from right-
back is a thing of beauty. His calmness, his physical strength, his
ability to cover the ground allow him to dominate his lank. Hesees the whole picture from inside his own half.
“One to pass and one to run: Robertson was an urgent,
thrusting menace on the other lank, a £7m player coached into
phenomenon at this level... It was Liverpool’s full-backs who
dictated the rhythms of this victory.”
The games came thick and fast. There was a hard-fought win
for Liverpool away to Crystal Palace before Trent sat out most
of the Champions League game with Napoli at Anield four days
later, returning for the home win over Brighton the following