British GQ - 04.2020

To be a playmaker from defence is rare. And yet, for Liverpool FC’s all-pressing, all-attacking

right-back, racking up as many assists as his summit-climbing team do wins is proving the name of the

game. GQ meets the Reds’ creator-in-chief redefining his role, one perfectly weighted pass at a time

Photographs by Neil Bedford

Styling by Elgar Johnson

There have been some wonderful Liverpool FC

sides down the years. But even the great Kenny

Dalglish, who has played in and managed some

of them, thinks the current one could top the

lot. Following a victory over Sheffield United at

the start of 2020, Liverpool had not lost a single

league game in a calendar year, becoming only the

third Premier League side to do so, and they have

showed no signs of slowing down since. At the time of writing they are

so far ahead of second-placed Manchester City that some bookmakers

are offering odds of them winning the title at 500/1 on – meaning a

£500 punt would return just £1 in profit.

And at the heart of it all is a local-born player by the name of

Trent Alexander-Arnold, one following in the footsteps of club greats

Steven Gerrard and Robbie Fowler and one who could just be the greatest

Scouser to play at Anfield yet. That is remarkable for two reasons above

all. One: he is just 21, having made his debut three seasons ago. Two:

he plays at right-back.

But with the help of manager Jürgen Klopp, Alexander-Arnold, who has

been attached to the club since the age of six, is reinventing this one-time

unglamorous position. He’s a defender, but also a playmaker, second only

to Manchester City’s midfield genius Kevin De Bruyne in the second-most

important stat in football: assists – ie, goals directly created by passes

and crosses made. As Jamie Carragher tells me, “In two years he has

taken the position of full-back to one where every kid wants to be one.

He runs the game from there – that’s something I’ve never seen before.”

Most players go through their entire careers without their own terrace

chant. But at 21, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s (“He’s Alexander-Arnold...

the Scouser in our team”) is not just a reflection of his local roots, but

also recognition, with his Champions League and Fifa Club World Club

championship medals earned in the last year, his nine England caps

and many more to come, that he is a very special talent – “probably

the best in the world in his position today”, says Carragher – who just

happens to be playing in probably the best team.

There is precious little sign of it all going to his head, however. The

club tell me he does more community events than any other player. And

he refuses to accept that he is, as yet, a top footballer. What comes over

throughout an afternoon in his company, though, is the absolute deter-

mination that he will become one, an obsession with winning born of a

hatred of losing, a love of the city, the club and the charismatic German

manager writing both of their names into Liverpool legend. But first,

we discussed the song... >>

EXCLUSIVE!

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188 GQ.CO.UK APRIL 2020