After Trent Alexander-Arnold

When a full-back becomes a quarterback.

They said the March international break would be calm and peaceful. They promised a temporary escape from the Premier League ahead of the final stretch. But no, you can always count on the transfer market to ruin your life.

You wanted to know more about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future, and now you do. His summer move to Real Madrid has been all but confirmed. Pour yourself a glass of something strong before you read the rest of this post.

---

Alright, first things first. Forget about replacing him. Not going to happen. When it comes to sourcing a like-for-like successor, there’s virtually nobody out there.

Achraf Hakimi is perhaps the most comparable, but he’s contracted to — arguably — the best team in the world right now in Paris Saint-Germain, earning the price of a brand new Lamborghini roughly every three days.

Pedro Porro is probably the most realistic of the Alexander-Arnold clones out there, aged 25 with Premier League experience — and it’s worth noting that Tottenham Hotspur are currently sat 14th in the table — but doing business with Daniel Levy is never fun. Especially when the Spurs chairman has the upper hand.

This isn’t about replacing Alexander-Arnold, no. It’s about buying a new right-back, there’s a big difference. Forget the Scouse defender ever existed. Forget what he’s offered on the ball since his debut. Just go out there and buy the best player you can find. Within reason, of course.

Throughout his career, Alexander-Arnold has offered a unique blend of progression from deeper areas and chance creation from virtually anywhere on the pitch.

He takes corners. He takes free-kicks. Every now and then, he’ll remind you of his level with a 40-yard switch of play from right to left. And if you want him to add an extra body in the middle of the park by becoming a makeshift midfielder, no bother.

It’s a good job Alexander-Arnold can’t defend, because you won’t find any other right-back who can open up the pitch like he can. A quarterback. A unicorn, and one who nobody else can mimic.

---

Luckily for us, we’ve witnessed Arne Slot treat him like he’s a relatively ordinary player since his appointment last year. Alexander-Arnold has kinda been tasked with going back to basics.

Jürgen Klopp and Pep Lijnders almost seemed to give him the keys to the team towards the end of their tenures. The Englishman was presented with a free role of sorts, popping up anywhere and everywhere with a license to try whatever takes his fancy.

Liverpool often suffered going the other way as a result of Alexander-Arnold’s tendency to take a risk without hesitation, with Slot since attempting to place some form of harness on his star full-back.

Things haven’t changed that much, but the role that Klopp and Lijnders created was extravagant and borderline unnecessary. No player could’ve replicated what Alexander-Arnold was doing.

Under Slot, however, the 26-year-old has still demonstrated his arsenal, but from much more of a functional home. Alexander-Arnold will always play like Alexander-Arnold, but this term, Liverpool’s right-back role hasn’t been an impossible one for an average player to fulfill.

This summer, the Reds simply need a player for that spot. Not a new Alexander-Arnold.

---

The state of the right-back market will make that task difficult for Richard Hughes. It isn’t good, and that’s probably an understatement. The shelves are bare, like shopping for a turkey on Christmas Eve.

For perspective, here are the top ten most valuable options on Wyscout right now, sorted according to their market values: Alexander-Arnold, Hakimi, Ben White, Matheus Nunes, Jeremie Frimpong, Jules Koundé, Porro, Axel Disasi, Reece James and Rico Lewis.