Jurgen Klopp has appeared to take a sly dig at England manager Gareth Southgate over his use of Trent Alexander-Arnold.
It’s quite remarkable to think that Alexander-Arnold is only 22-years-old. It feels as though he’s been a mainstay in the Liverpool starting XI for years.
As soon as the young right-back graduated into the first-team and began to showcase his expansive passing range and dangerous set-piece ability, you could tell Liverpool had found themselves a phenom.
At the time of writing, there isn’t a better right-back in world football than Alexander-Arnold – yet, Gareth Southgate fielded him at central midfield for 45 minutes against Andorra.
The England boss decided to trial Alexander-Arnold in a brand new role, with Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp today revealing that he simply does not see the logic behind it.
Klopp: “But why would you make the best right-back in the world a midfielder?
“I struggle to understand how you can think that?”
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) September 10, 2021
He certainly has a point. Alexander-Arnold is at home in the right-back position and has proven himself to be the best in the business when operating in that area.
Moving him into midfield does feel as though you are tinkering with something that doesn’t need to be tinkered with.
Whether this is a direct dig at Southgate from Klopp, or rather at the idea of Trent playing central midfield, which has floated around for a while, is not clear.
Either way, you can be sure that you won’t be seeing him in midfield for Liverpool anytime soon…