How Trent's role change helped Liverpool rescue a point against Arsenal

Jurgen Klopp finally caved and used Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield. Sort of.  

The No. 66 was still a right-back for the Reds in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal this weekend but he was shuffling into central midfield whenever Liverpool had possession. This has happened at times during the campaign, but rarely has it been so obvious in the build-up.  

Alexander-Arnold would usually start on the right and then drift inside once the ball was in the opposition’s half, but it was different at Anfield on Sunday.  

As soon as Liverpool were in possession, the right-back was stepping inside to form a double pivot alongside Fabinho. This in turn allowed the Brazilian to cover the left side of the pitch which then altered the role of the left-sided midfielder, giving the Reds more bodies in attack.  

It was a subtle tweak in the grand scheme of things but a significant one.  

A lot of the post-match focus was on this change and Klopp, as ever, was candid in his response.   

"We did that before, but it was not that obvious. But we did that before, we put Trent inside. Today, in buildup Trent played more inside, double six, that’s how it is. You need to get used to it, obviously. I would say it’s a big step to do it in a game against Arsenal. It opened up different opportunities for us, if you watch it back after we learned to use it." 

Alexander-Arnold’s heatmap highlights the role change. Whereas usually, the majority of his touches come closer to the touchline, he was seeing much more of the ball in central areas against the Premier League leaders.  

Not only did the positional tweak change where he had the ball, but it also changed what he did with the ball too.  

Prior to the game against Arsenal, Alexander-Arnold had averaged 66 passes per game in the Premier League with a success rate of 77%. In the draw with the Gunners, he attempted 51 passes but found a teammate 82% of the time. Furthermore, the he played four key passes, a total no other player on the pitch could match. So, he saw less of the ball but was more productive with it. Perhaps it is a little too early in the experiment, a one-game sample size is by no means large enough to draw conclusions from but, nonetheless, it is interesting and something to keep an eye on.  

It is also worth noting that Alexander-Arnold completed 100% of his dribbles against Arsenal as well as winning 100% of his aerial duels. He also attempted eight tackles - the most of any player - while only Ibrahima Konate and Thomas Partey won more tackles (five to the right-back’s four).  

During the game, Gary Neville focused on Alexander-Arnold’s positioning from a defensive point of view and singled out his flat-footedness in the lead-up to Gabriel Jesus’ goal. He almost ignored everything else and opted to reach for the low-hanging fruit.  

By no means did the Alexander-Arnold cover himself in glory for the second Arsenal goal but he wasn’t the only one. The role change had nothing to do with that either. In fact, the tweak to his position resulted in him finishing the match with the highest WhoScored rating (7.88) of those in red. His season average to date is 6.94, so it really emphasises just how good he was at Anfield against the table toppers.  

It might not be here to stay, Klopp likes to change things up on a regular basis this term, but the double-pivot role helped facilitate one of his best performances of the season, both with and without the ball.