AC: What did you think when you first
heard the crowd chant your song?
TAA : It was one of the proudest moments of
my life, definitely.
The thing about you is that you are the
only Scouser in the team.
It’s something I’m massively proud of, some-
thing I think comes with responsibility. I don’t
take it for granted, because I know it’s so hard
to do it. It’s probably everyone in the stadi-
um’s dream to be that person who’s in the
team who’s from the actual city that they’re
from and to be able to do that having been a
fan growing up.
The guys from Egypt and Brazil and
Holland – can they “get it” in the same
way as you?
I think they understand what the club is about,
the history, this tradition, the values of the
club. I grew up with it. I understood it from an
early age. I was taught it throughout my child-
hood, whereas they weren’t.
Do you think the modern footballer can
have that same connection with the fans?
Yeah. I think it’s well known here that the fans
are special and they love the players more than
anything, but it’s not just about the fans. It’s
whether you fit the city and the
environment that you’re living in,
whether the people accept you,
if you feel at home, if the family
feel at home. I think Liverpool is
probably one of the easiest in that
regard, because as soon as you come in you are
accepted – you know that.
When did you know that you were going
to be a really good footballer?
I don’t think I ever knew that I’d be a really
good footballer. I wouldn’t think now that I’m
a really good footballer.
Are you trying to tell me you don’t know
you’re a really good footballer?
I’d say I haven’t reached full potential at all.
I’m not where I need to be and where I can
be. So there’s no point putting a label on it,
in my mind. I still have a lot of improvement
to do. Growing up, there were always indi-
cations of it, but, for me, it was just about
playing every game. I wanted to win every
game. It was never me thinking, “I’m put on
the planet and I have to be a footballer,” it
was more just every day going to train and
wanting to win and wanting to be as compet-
itive as possible.
Few right-backs get talked about as a
footballer in the way that you do...
Yeah, obviously that’s their opinions. I try to
play as well as I can to help the team win stuff.
Any individual accolade will never come close
to a team trophy, because they’re the ones that
you grow up dreaming of winning. They’re
the ones that mean the most. They’re the
hardest ones to win.When you were growing up, some of the
coaches who looked after you said you
had a real problem with temperament.
Your temper.
I wasn’t angry all the time, just maybe overly
competitive at times, because I wanted to win
so much that if I didn’t, then obviously I’d
be upset. I’d be angry – angry at myself that
I hadn’t won something. That comes from a
young age. Doing anything with my brothers,
we’d be competitive all the time in anything
that we ever did. So, for me, it was normal to
be angry if you didn’t win.
Were there moments when your temper
got the better of you, affected you for
the worse, and did you have to get rid
of that?
Yeah, because it would make you lose concen-
tration in the game. You’d be focused on your
mistakes and, say, if you gave a foul away or
gave a penalty away, you made a mistake to
cost your team a goal. You’re kicking your-
self, and then for the next five minutes you’re
out of the game, or your team is down to
ten men. The control of your temperament
will be the same as practising your passing,
your receiving, your skill sets, your shooting,your crossing. The mentality side of it is just
as important as the technical side of the game.
Do you love winning or do you
hate losing?
I hate losing. The feeling of someone else
getting the better of you... it’s weakening. It
feels weak. You feel as though you’ve let your-
self down.
Jürgen Klopp, in a word?
Unbelievable. Just everything about him in
every way. His man management... as a person,
as a manager. Just unbelievable.
The Klopp that we see on the television,
how close is that to the Klopp that you
see on the training ground?
He’s the same person, because I feel as though
in those interviews, when you see him on the
camera, you can see that he’s a loving person.
You can see that he’s someone who cares
about the people around him. He cares about
his family, he cares about his players, he cares
about his staff. He treats everyone as equals.
He treats the captain the same as he would a
young player. People probably have a concep-
tion of him as maybe being very emotional,
heart on the sleeve. Which he is to an extent,
but he knows how to control it in ways that are
beneficial to everyone around him. He knows
what needs to be said and what tone it needs
to be said in, at the right time.What about when he’s taking you aside,
one on one? What has he done with
you, specifically, to say, “Here you
are, Trent, here’s how we can improve
things”? How does he manage that side
of the job?
Literally like what you said. He’d talk to you
about what you need to improve, what things
you need to be doing to get on to the team and
why you’re not on the team.
He’d explain to you why you’re not on
the team?
Sometimes. Sometimes he won’t – maybe that’s
the message itself: you’re not on the team so
you need to do something to change. More
times than not, you know what you need to
do. But if it needs to be explained to you, then
the manager will explain to you.
Would you literally sit down with clips
of videos and go over “That was good,
that could be better”?
No, he won’t sit you down with clips. I think at
this level the players and the athletes should
be doing that by themselves. If the manager
has told you to do something and you don’t
really understand it, then you should go to
the analysts and get the clips and understand
what he meant. He keeps our men-
tality 100 per cent. He makes sure
that the message is instilled in us
every single day to make sure that
we’re our best.
Do you think it’s possible, at
your level, to develop real friendships
with teammates? Or do you think you’re
just all professionals and you’re part of
that team?
You will create proper friendships in the team
environments because you spend so much time
with people that you know so much about
them. I truly believe that connection will last a
lot longer than people think. Because you spend
so much time with them, you understand them,
you’re having fun with them. You’re going
through good times, bad times. You’re sharing
a section of your life with those people for so
long. They become your family.
Would you check out how Kieran
Trippier, your rival at right-back in the
England side, is getting on in Madrid?
I check up on all the leagues.
Yeah, but would you check up on him
from the perspective of him being in
your mind as somebody you’ve got to
be better than the whole time, from
Gareth Southgate’s perspective?
I wouldn’t say that was in my mind too much,
because I’m focused on playing as well as I
can. You know that when you’re playing for
Liverpool, by playing well you put yourself
into Gareth’s mind as much as possible and
you understand that he picks his teams kind
of off club form. >>‘Jürgen Klopp is unbelievable.
He makes sure his message is
instilled in us so we’re our best’04-20FeatureTAA_3396009.indd 182 04/02/2020 13:41
190 GQ.CO.UK APRIL 2020