Trent Alexander-Arnold is continuing his Liverpool evolution and he is now unmatched in Europe – Liverpool.com

Football is a simple game, complicated by idiots. So said Bill Shankly, and few people of his generation will have known more about the sport than him. Times change, though, and some of the complications in the form of data can be very enlightening. Some people believe analytics is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.

No matter how much we learn, and how advanced data becomes, football remains a simple game at heart though. Score more goals than them and well do alright, you know? And how do we do that? Get the ball away from our goal and towards their end of the pitch.

A new way of measuring this latter attribute of the game illustrates both the importance and the evolution of Trent Alexander-Arnold. Shanklys view of playmaking right-backs was understandably unrecorded, but hed no doubt approve of how Liverpools number 66 dominates Europe in this regard.

READ MORE: Liverpool midfield pledge is vital to Jrgen Klopp's plans as Mohamed Salah target in sight

READ MORE: Jrgen Klopp discovered how to solve a massive Liverpool problem vs Salzburg with quality cameo

The metric which highlights the value of Alexander-Arnold when it comes to advancing the ball up field is called Fields Gained. This is explained with the following definition: if a player progresses the ball 10 yards from a point 100 yards from goal, thats 0.1 Fields Gained, as it is 10 per cent of the field. A player advancing it three yards from 30 yards away gets the same amount of credit, even though it will likely be harder to achieve. Thanks to the Markstats website, we can now see the rates per 90 minutes for players in Europes big five leagues for the past three seasons.

In 2019/20, Alexander-Arnold was the sole Reds representative among Manchester City men in the top four. Aymeric Laporte led the chart, with 7.01 fields gained per 90, ahead of Trent (6.05), Fernandinho (6.00) and Oleksandr Zinchenko (5.56). Andy Robertson and Virgil van Dijk were next in line but three of the four players directly behind them also played for the Premier League runners-up that season.

Much of the following campaign was undoubtedly a struggle for the Reds. However, Alexander-Arnold upped his fields gained by almost 10 per cent, Laporte fell away, and the Liverpool right-back was now top of the pile in the division. Interestingly, Jordan Henderson (5.75 per 90) and Thiago Alcntara (5.46) were now in the top four with him.

And so to last season, and another significant advance for Alexander-Arnold. He improved by another 11 per cent to gain 7.36 fields every 90 minutes he played. Not only did he top the standings once again, but with the highest Premier League figure recorded for the limited period for which the data is available.

Nobody in Spain bettered his efforts in 2021/22 either, with Toni Kroos (7.21) the closest. That was better than anyone in Ligue 1 managed Sergio Ramos was top on 6.61 and a long way clear of Serie As best, Marcelo Brozovic (5.74).

German football was able to provide someone who gained more fields than Alexander-Arnold: Manuel Riemann. Is he a playmaker whose numbers would interest Liverpools transfer analytics team? No, hes the 33-year-old goalkeeper for Bochum who completed significantly more long passes than anyone else in the big leagues last season. Roy Hodgsons dream he might be, the future of football he is not.

It's also possible to measure fields gained by carrying the ball. Alexander-Arnold is nowhere near the top here, its more of a Jol Matip thing. But Trents figures do indicate how his game has changed. From 2019/20 onwards, his carrying contribution has been 2.21, 2.35 the following year and then 1.47 last season. This means the proportion of his fields gained which came from passing was 74 per cent for the first two campaigns but rose to 83 per cent in 2021/22.

Alexander-Arnold has always possessed a sublime ability to play the perfect pass. Where many people think he relies on crossing, the percentage of his expected threat like expected goals, but for all actions from crosses has never been lower. His evolution into a central playmaker rather than a flank-hogger has been superb, and may not be finished yet: the positions in which he has been popping up in pre-season are more extreme than ever. In a simple game, Trent is making the rest look like idiots.

Read the original:

Trent Alexander-Arnold is continuing his Liverpool evolution and he is now unmatched in Europe - Liverpool.com