Arne Slot has Liverpool flying high.
The Reds are top of the Premier League table and following the 4-0 demolition win over Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen, they sit top of the new-look Champions League table.
The Dutchman has done this by going against the grain. He's done the opposite of what many thought he'd do with certain players.
Pre-Slot, Darwin Nunez was a volume merchant, averaging over four shots per 90 in the Premier League. Now, however, he’s a shot-shy, pressing monster.
The No9, in his limited game time for the Reds this term, has averaged just 1.25 shots per 90. I thought I’d be raging at this. Darwin was loads of fun. Without his many, many shots, I thought he’d be a bore.
But he’s still loads of fun, just in a different way.
The Dutchman has also completely transformed Trent Alexander-Arnold’s game.
A common complaint often levelled at the right-back is that he’s not a good defender. Though that has always been exaggerated. When tasked with defending, he’s perfectly fine.
Issues only really arise when he’s massively exposed or he’s expected to be in multiple places at once, but this isn't exclusive to him.
Gary Neville and his many, many exaggerated claims over the years haven’t helped the narrative either.
The Sky Sports pundit is now pushing the ‘Trent should be England’s starting right-back’ but before Euro 2024 he was saying Gareth Southgate’s men had no chance of winning anything with him at full-back given he lacked the defensive instincts required to nullify the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Rafael Leao or any other top-level left-sided attacker.
Odd considering he’s come up against these players in the Champions League and more than held his own as Liverpool reached three finals under Jurgen Klopp.
He was also a key part for the Reds as they recorded three 90+ point seasons in the Premier League while regularly having one of the best defensive records.
Imagine what Klopp could’ve achieved with a good defender at right-back, ey?
The recent Ian Graham book also shed some light on this particular topic, sort of.
When the Reds needed a left-back, Andrew Robertson was discussed. There were some concerns over his ability to defend.
Klopp’s response to this, according to Graham, was: “My full-backs have to attack, we can fill in for his defence.”
The German tactician’s focus was seemingly on getting the best out of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson going forward. He sacrificed the likes of Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum in midfield, tasking them with filling space and covering for the full-backs.
Alexander-Arnold didn’t have to be the best defender. In fact, the system wasn’t really set up for him to show off what he could do defensively. Yet he was judged on that, time and time again, by rival fans and pundits.
The 26-year-old has always had the ability. Perhaps, though, he’d been missing the desire.
But this could be tied to not being judged on his defensive exploits.
Now, though, with eyes on the Ballon d’Or, he wants to be the best.
Not just the best offensive right-back in history. The best right-back in history.
And Alexander-Arnold is working with Slot on the defensive side of his game. He revealed this earlier in the season.
"We talked about targets and aims and I said to him that I would like to be the defender that no-one wants to come up against in Europe," the No66 said.
"We agreed that he will be harsh on me. Any time an attacker gets past me he will call it out in meetings and individual meetings and say this cannot happen. We go through every game together, our highlights and where he wants me to improve. Even the Milan game, we had about 20 clips going through what I could have done better and the good parts as well.
"It is really refreshing to have a manager who will help and guide and teach me how to be better. I am someone who wants to learn, someone who strives to be the best ever."
We’re now seeing the dividends of this.
Alexander-Arnold put in an emphatic defensive showing against Brighton recently. In previous years, the England international had been terrorised by Kaoru Mitoma.
He got some revenge on Saturday.
The right-back won a match-high eight tackles and triumphed in 12 of his 16 ground duels. He was a one-man wrecking ball down the right flank.
And this was without the protection of Ibou Konate after the Frenchman was replaced at half-time. At times in the past, the RB Leipzig man would be a safety blanket for the No66, bailing him out of trouble after he’d been beaten.
Not this time though.
Mitoma completed just three of his eight attempted dribbles. He was locked down by Alexander-Arnold.
He’s not the first player to suffer this fate this term. Leao was a non-factor for Milan in the Champions League while the in-form Jadon Sancho was hauled off at half-time in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Chelsea recently.
His replacement, Pedro Neto, was forced into switching flanks to get any joy that day.
Alexander-Arnold is averaging more tackles (2.5) than ever before. His average for the Reds in the Premier League, before this season, was around 1.5 per 90. In fact, he’s winning more tackles now (1.79) than he had previously been attempting.
That is a serious upgrade.
He’s also winning 61% of his challenges. He’s not won more since 2020/21 (64%) and he’s involved in more this term (2.74 vs 1.66).
He’s proving to be a good duelist and a brilliant one-vs-one defender.
The scary thing for the opposition is this hasn’t impacted his offensive numbers. His expected assists (xA) per 90 average this season is 0.32, up from the 0.25 during Klopp’s final year in charge.
He’s created chances with an xA value of three but has just one assist to his name this term.
Interestingly, he’s created just 2.02 chances per 90. This is fewer than last term (2.67) but shows the chances he’s now carving out are of higher value. So he’s just better than ever before, but without the assists, he’s not getting the credit he should be.
On current form, Alexander-Arnold is arguably one of the best pure defenders in Europe. When the chances he's creating are converted, he could well be viewed as one of the best players in Europe, full stop.
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