It can probably be safely assumed that nobody grows up wanting to be a full-back. Most kids who take a liking to football dream of being strikers or wingers, with some wanting to ping balls around like Paul Scholes instead, or even be their team’s hero by going in goal. Full-back, though? As Jamie Carragher memorably pointed out on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football a few years ago, you were either a failed winger or a failed centre-back if you played at full-back, eliciting a laugh and chuckle from his co-presenter and full-back veteran Gary Neville.
However, the position has been reinvented since the ’90s, with full-backs tasked with providing most of a side’s attacking thrust, certainly from out wide. It has led to a rise of players who love going forward from that position, but are shaky on the defensive side of things. The Brazilians have a long and strong tradition of flair players as their full-backs, but it is a boy from Liverpool who has taken the position to new heights and given inspiration to many aspiring young kids in the bargain.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is still only 21 years old, but has probably already achieved what most players will never do in their careers – redefining a position or role. The Liverpool right-back, in tandem with his partner on the opposite flank, Andy Robertson, has changed the way full-backs are seen in the modern game, with both of them providing Liverpool’s greatest creative threat. As it stands, Alexander-Arnold has the most assists in the Premier League since the start of the 2018/19 season, with Robertson not too far off either. It is for this reason that many of the leading betting sites Nigeria 2020 are backing TAA to win the player of the year award this season.
However, it is the way in which Alexander-Arnold, in particular, has played his role that has been quite extraordinary. He does not play as a traditional full-back, looking to get on the outside and cross from the byline. In Liverpool’s system, the wingers, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, play as inverted forwards, coming inside to create space on the outside for Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. At the same time, the defensive midfielder, usually Fabinho, drops into the defensive line, thus turning a 4-3-3 into a highly attacking 3-2-5 in attack. Alexander-Arnold thus has almost the entire flank to himself, and uses the space to play accurate crosses towards his forwards, but from deeper positions. He is almost like a right-sided midfielder, coming into the half-spaces and picking out his teammates in front of him, quite similar to how Kevin de Bruyne plays for Manchester City. The difference, though, is that as a full-back, Alexander-Arnold’s footballing ability is far greater than what is expected from players in his position. With each performance, TAA is giving the prediction of Liverpool scoring more than under 3.5 goals meaning.
Another familiar sight when watching Liverpool play is to see the two full-backs exchanging cross-field passes over the width of the pitch. With the wide areas left to them, Alexander-Arnold and Robertson often switch the play through quick diagonal passes to each other, another stylistic rarity from a full-back. While Alexander-Arnold does lose the ball quite often, it is a question of risk vs rewards, with his long, direct passes able to break the opposition’s lines instantly. Given that he started out as a midfielder in Liverpool’s youth teams, and due to his stellar ability on the ball, many observers predict that he will eventually be moved inside to play as a central midfielder. Nevertheless, even if he does make the switch, he has changed the full-back’s role in modern football, and that is a legacy not many players can claim to have.
