Arne Slot has impressed Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold with his tactical awareness and is “excited” about his plans moving forward.
Alexander-Arnold provided another assist for Liverpool in a 3-1 win over AC Milan on Tuesday, as Ibrahima Konate scored following a free-kick taken by the versatile defender.
Alexander-Arnold may be listed as a right-back, but under former boss Jurgen Klopp he was often seen further up the field alongside Mohamed Salah.Liverpool is undergoing a major transition following the departure of Klopp after nine years, and it’s been a major learning process for Alexander-Arnold.
The 25-year-old had only been managed by Klopp in his senior career, but the defender is already enjoying life under Slot.Alexander-Arnold has been given even more freedom by the new head coach, and Liverpool fans often struggle to determine which position he is playing.
The defender constantly floats between right-back, right-wing, and even an option in the midfield, but Alexander-Arnold is loving his variety of roles.The defender was asked about Slot’s tactics for him in an interview with CBS Sports after the game.
Alexander-Arnold said: “It changes fluidly throughout games, depending on how the opponents press us, so there’s a lot of tactical changes in games.“Where to go, where not to go, when to stay wide, when to drop into the back line, when to go into midfield, when to go into a No.8, when Mo (Salah) roams inside and I’m a high winger. There’s all different variations.
He gives us that information throughout the week, throughout the game, leading up to the game. He paints scenarios so that we have answers to everything, so it’s kind of like, if they press this way, this is where we’re going to be positioned – and if they press a different way, then we’ll position ourselves this way.
There’s a solution to every problem that they brought us.”It was a completely different performance from the underwhelming 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, with the entire starting eleven looking much sharper and more direct.
Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai also scored for Liverpool to seal victory over Milan after Christian Pulisic initially put the Italian team ahead inside five minutes. It was a fitting win to celebrate Slot’s birthday on Tuesday, who reacted to the result after the game.
A great way to spend my birthday,” Slot told Amazon Prime. “We have more than 11 players and the ones that came in did well. You wouldn’t have said this after five minutes, but after we did well.
Losing Saturday was a blow and to be 1-0 down early tonight, you are wondering how we react. But if you can play so good it is – I won’t say a disgrace – unbelievable you lose to Forest at home if you can play like this today.
