(Video) Exclusive: “Klopp’s got it wrong” – Ex-Red says Alexander-Arnold is ‘crap as a right-back’
Trent Alexander-Arnold is currently thriving in his new position for Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp seems to have found a way for the team to operate that brings out the best of the attacking prowess of the 24-year-old.
Speaking exclusively at the book launch of Crossing the Park: The Men Who Dared to Play for Both Liverpool and Everton, Steve McMahon was asked on his opinion to put our No.66 in his new role.
The 61-year-old said: “Well, he was s**t as a right-back wasn’t he? He was, he was crap as a right-back – of course he was, his defending was poor. If you’re a right back – you’ve got to defend…
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“Klopp’s got it wrong, he’s not a right-back… he doesn’t know what he is, Trent doesn’t know what he is – right-back or a midfielder? Liverpool have got to identify what job he is, where his assets are and where are his wrongdoings.
“He cannot defend for toffee, he cannot defend. So, if you’re a defender then the first thing you do is defend, if you can’t defend then you’re not a defender. You’ve got to decide, is he a defender or a midfielder?
“He’s now playing inverted so Klopp has decided to do what Pep Guardiola does, with full-backs inverted and going into midfield and he looks decent enough, he really does look okay but he does nothing. He’s 100 miles an hour going forward and 5 miles an hour going backwards.
“So, he’s not the greatest defender in the world as we’ve all seen over the past 12 months at least. So, he’s developing into a new role, a new system – I don’t know”.
It seems quite harsh to state that the Scouser in our team ‘cannot defend’ when he’s been an integral part of every side that has won every trophy in the game, all whilst playing at right-back.
To then also say that this decision to play him here was a fault of the manager, does again seem over the top for what we have achieved in the past few seasons.
However, the fact that his position has been altered does show there were clearly issues to iron out – something that looks to have happened in the past eight games.
You can watch McMahon’s comments on Alexander-Arnold (from 50:36) via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
The post (Video) Exclusive: “Klopp’s got it wrong” – Ex-Red says Alexander-Arnold is ‘crap as a right-back’ appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.