How has Trent Alexander-Arnold started at Real Madrid? And why has he lost his England place?

Sports

add

Trent Alexander-Arnold is experiencing the most turbulent year of his career.

After two decades with Liverpool, the right-back joined Real Madrid in June. The Spanish giants could have signed him for nothing as a free agent when his contract expired at the end of that month, but instead paid €10million (£8.4m; $11.4m) to get him early, so he could play for them at the Club World Cup. He started Madrid’s first five matches in that competition in the United States but missed their semi-final loss to Paris Saint-Germain through a minor injury.

The 26-year-old then started Madrid’s first game of the La Liga season two weeks ago, a 1-0 win at home against Osasuna, before being replaced in the 68th minute that night by Dani Carvajal, who returned from a serious knee injury just at the end of that Club World Cup semi-final.

For Madrid’s second La Liga match, a visit to Real Oviedo, Alexander-Arnold was benched in favour of the Spaniard and featured for just three minutes at the end of a 3-0 away victory. But it still came as a surprise on Friday when England’s head coach Thomas Tuchel dropped Alexander-Arnold from his squad for World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Latvia over the next couple of weeks.

With the situation delicate, Madrid coach Xabi Alonso brought him back into the starting line-up for the visit of Mallorca on Saturday. It was his most Alexander-Arnold-like performance for the club yet according to coaching staff sources, until he was replaced in the 72nd minute of Madrid’s 2-1 win by an acclaimed Carvajal — which showed the challenge the Englishman is facing.

So what is going on with Alexander-Arnold in these early stages of his career at Madrid? The Athletic explains.

How has Alexander-Arnold performed for Madrid so far?

With club captain Carvajal into the final stages of his recovery from October’s knee injury, Alexander-Arnold was the coach’s choice at right-back in the first five matches of the Club World Cup. He started out looking distracted in defence and somewhat timid in attack, but ended his tournament with assists for Gonzalo Garcia’s winning goal against Juventus in the round of 16 and for Fran Garcia as Borussia Dortmund were beaten in the quarter-finals.

That minor muscle problem at the Club World Cup and Madrid’s curtailed pre-season as a result of being involved in that tournament until July 9 may have been why he did not play his best football in his La Liga debut against Osasuna. Five days later, Alonso dropped him in favour of Carvajal for the trip to Oviedo, which brought a lot of comments.

But of course we are talking about Real Madrid, surely the most demanding team in the world, and nobody at the club is surprised that there is some murmuring about a new signing as early as August. And that includes Alexander-Arnold himself.

Alexander-Arnold started for Madrid on Saturday (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

After 21 years at Liverpool, his perceived ability to cope psychologically with the game’s pressures is something that was highly valued by the Madrid board when they decided to sign him.

Alexander-Arnold has experience at the elite level: successes and failures, praise and criticism, good form and days when nothing went right, health and injuries. He captained Liverpool for the first time in 2020 at just 22, and sources familiar with the current situation — speaking anonymously to protect relationships, as with others in this article — explain that none of this has surprised the player. What’s more, it was what he expected, and one of the motivations that led him to take such an important step. “He knows that at Madrid winning is an obligation,” one of the sources said.

From his ankle injury against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on March 11 until the end of last season with Liverpool, he only played 220 minutes (out of 540 for which he was available). Also, in his final month there, training sessions were conducted with the intensity you’d expect from a team who had already secured the Premier League title.

During that period, Alexander-Arnold also had to deal with the uncertainty of whether Madrid would reach an agreement with Liverpool for him to play in the Club World Cup, his move to the Spanish capital, and an international window with England. Then, after joining Madrid, he trained just a few sessions under Alonso before travelling with his new team-mates to Miami to begin their Club World Cup campaign.

In other words, even if his performances have not been the best, few expected to see the Alexander-Arnold of his Liverpool best from day one under such conditions.

Against Mallorca on Saturday, he showed more of his repertoire. A spectacular would-be assist for Kylian Mbappe stood out particularly, but the goal was disallowed for offside after being checked by VAR.

He has not settled in perfectly at Madrid, but this is not a concern at the club. They signed him on a six-year contract, which is the best indication of the trust placed in him. Both the club and Alonso have asked for patience.

“After (so long) at Liverpool, the change is huge, very intense, and in a short time you go from zero to 100, and that takes time,” said the coach during the Club World Cup. “He is growing so much in terms of integration, adapting to the new club, his team-mates, the new coach, the ideas, and we have to be with him every day.”

Is he second-choice behind Carvajal?

It is still too early to tell.

The Athletic reported that previous Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti saw Carvajal, who is 33, as the starter if he recovered well from his injury. However, Alonso has not yet given any clues about this.

In fact, when he benched Alexander-Arnold and forward Vinicius Junior for the match against Oviedo, the coach explained that “changes from game to game depend on what we need in terms of workload and the opposition; I haven’t made any decisions for next month”.

Alexander-Arnold is in competition with Carvajal for a place in the Madrid team (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

He added: “We have more than 20 players in the squad, and I will try to get the best out of them to have the best team possible. That will be the tone for the whole year.”

Club sources had explained to The Athletic that Alonso is a coach who is very likely to rotate his players and that the contrast with predecessor Ancelotti’s era will be significant.

However, competition and comparison between Alexander-Arnold and Carvajal will be inevitable. A source involved in the day-to-day running of the club’s training ground at Valdebebas said to The Athletic: “The adaptation is going well, he has integrated like one of the team, he has a good relationship with everyone.”

Two sources at the training ground agreed that Alexander-Arnold is still in the process of finding the right rhythm and tempo in training, possibly due to the lack of competition and everything he has been through in recent months.

Could he be moved to midfield?

Sources privy to what happened during the signing process say this possibility was not discussed in depth, as Madrid’s stance was that they wanted one of the best right-backs in the world. Alonso has not tried Alexander-Arnold there, not in the Club World Cup, in pre-season or so far in La Liga.

The only doubt comes from a statement by the coach while in the United States.

“He has done it at Liverpool and in the national team,” Alonso said. “He can go inside a little bit, he is a very different full-back, he doesn’t only occupy outside spaces. What happens around him is important, you have to know how to choose the moments. But having his feet and his quality and his understanding of the game for us is very positive.”

Why was he dropped from the England squad?

When asked whether it was a sporting decision or to help the player adapt to his new life in Madrid, Tuchel said in his press conference that it was “all in the mix, but it is a competitive decision first and foremost”.

Alexander-Arnold did get picked in Tuchel’s squad in June, but he was on the bench for the World Cup qualifier away to Andorra, with former Liverpool team-mate Curtis Jones starting instead. Alexander-Arnold came on as a substitute for the final half-hour. Kyle Walker then started as right-back for a home friendly against Senegal three days later, with Alexander-Arnold an unused sub on the night.

Alexander-Arnold stayed on the bench as England played Senegal in June (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

On Friday, Tuchel, who said he’s had a conversation with the player on the phone about the decision, revealed that Alexander-Arnold “was very clear that he’s desperate and keen to come back and play for England”.

So what’s next for Alexander-Arnold?

He needs something very simple and yet often very difficult to find: time.

The ankle injury in March, the looming departure from Liverpool reducing his playing time at the end of last season, the move to Madrid, the link-up with England in June, the presentation as a Madrid player just before their departure to the Club World Cup, starting to play matches without enough time to be prepared for it, the muscular issue in America, the lack of a normal-length pre-season…

Multiple sources say Alexander-Arnold has adapted well to the club and the city, despite having a lot of room to improve possibly due to the language barrier, but now it’s time to take a breath and really start his new life.

(Photo: Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Ryan Garcia writes off Terence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez upset: ‘He’s biting off more than he can chew’

Boxing - English

Next

trending_flat

Carson Beck causes awkward silence from his ex-girlfriend who forced her not to support the Miami Hurricanes

Carson Beck - English