Trent-Alexander Arnold Position In Real Madrid: The years-long saga of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s move to Real Madrid has come to an end. After being in talks for a long time, the Spanish giants have finally signed the English full-back, revealing him as their latest signing earlier today.
Trent has been one of the best full-backs of this generation and played a key role in Liverpool’s success over the last five or six years. While he is technically the defender, the 26-year-old is a very different kind of full-back who focuses more on the attacking side for his team.
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Known for his relentless crosses from wide of the pitch and making a lot of assists throughout the season, Trent is generally recognised as a midfield-esque player, creating chances more than focusing on defence.
This approach is now quite common in high-level football, with several teams using their full-back in a more attacking position, but Alexander-Arnold remains one of the best examples of such a player.
The 16-time UEFA Champions League champions brought in the Englishman a month before the end of his contract with Liverpool. While he would have come for no transfer fee a month later, the Madrid-based club paid 10 million euros for his services to bring him in before the FIFA Club World Cup, which will start on June 15.
The question now is, where will Trent Alexander-Arnold fit into the Real Madrid system? Where will new club manager Xabi Alonso use him in his playing XI, and who will he replace in the side?
One of the best examples of an attack-minded full-back is Lucas Vázquez. The Spanish international has been with Real Madrid for his entire professional career, playing in junior sides before being brought up to the main team after a loan stint with Espanyol in 2014-15. Since the 2016-17 season, Vázquez has played a total of 545 matches for Real and is a modern-day club legend.
While it might be obvious, with the team’s permanent right-back leaving the team, where will Trent play for the side? But Vázquez will not leave Los Blancos until after the Club World Cup. And with the club spending 10 million euros just to bring Trent in for this competition, which position will he play on the side?
For some, the answer might seem to brute force the situation. That, despite Lucas Vázquez still being with the club, Trent will occupy his place in the right-back position in preparation for the remainder of the season, where he will definitely be a part of the defence quartet.
However, there is another possibility, which seems more obvious once we bring Trent’s versatility into the equation. Infamously, during the 2024 UEFA Euros, then-England manager Gareth Southgate used Alexander-Arnold in the midfield to use one of many other English players who play in the right-back position.
While that experiment wasn’t the most successful, seeing how attack-minded and a chance-creating player Trent can be, he might be the answer to Real Madrid’s short-term problems.
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