Sports

Focusing on defending is ‘like playing with shackles on’

Trent Alexander-Arnold says that focusing on defensive positioning is “like playing with shackles on.”

Not for the first time this season, Alexander-Arnold was heavily criticised for his defending by many following Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Arsenal at the weekend.

Arsenal’s first goal of the match was scored on the right-back’s side of the pitch while the second was created there.

His poor defensive positioning was to blame for both in the eyes of many, but he says focusing on that aspect of the game limits his freedom and creativity.

“I never like to play the position, I play the game,” he told GQ. “[If] you play the position, it limits you. It’s like playing with shackles on.

“I’ve always thought that with a sensible mind, play the game, get in positions that will hurt the opposition, and at the same time do the defensive work you need to do.

“It’s more: Play the game how it needs to be played.”

Whether the full-back will have a part to play in England’s World Cup campaign is very much uncertain with Gareth Southgate scarcely using him in recent times.

It’s a very different squad to the one he was part of in 2018 that reached the semi-finals, and Alexander-Arnold claimed such changes are why the tournament shouldn’t be held every two years as FIFA have suggested doing.

“It just becomes a bit too familiar, and it loses that special World Cup feeling,” the Liverpool man said. “Teams wouldn’t change, and things wouldn’t really change that much.

“Whereas every four years, you’re looking at a whole new evolution of the team. It’s just a lot of time for things to happen, and it gives young players more of a chance to be able to make it.”

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