- Trent Alexander-Arnold reveals he shared with Ragnar Klavan in Marbella
- Jurgen Klopp famously gets players to pick names from a hat during training camps abroad
- German views it as valuable team-bonding
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Trent Alexander-Arnold has hailed Jurgen Klopp for his efforts towards uniting Liverpool’s squad during their training camps.
The German famously makes his players pick names from a hat to determine who they will share a room with on the trip, designed as a way of bringing together less familiar members of the team.
A famous case came in La Manga last season when Simon Mignolet was paired with U23s defender Conor Masterson, with the pair having rarely spoken in the past.
That served as a prime example of the value of Klopp’s approach in terms of giving young players in the squad the opportunity to feel more settled and involved with the senior players.
As for the recent Marbella excursion, Alexander-Arnold was joined by defender Ragnar Klavan.
“The manager really encourages team-bonding and different things to help us become closer and a big thing with the manager was sharing rooms, which not many of the players are used to these days,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.
“That helps you get to know people that you don’t necessarily always speak to on a day-to-day basis and maybe there’s a language barrier that you have to overcome too. It just helps you when you come back to Melwood because you know the person that you shared with a bit more.”
“I roomed with Raggy and there are no complaints from me! He was a really good ‘roomy’ and I was happy that I was able to share with him. The process of who shared with who was random.”
“I think it was just names out of a hat in twos. Me and Raggy know a little bit more about each other now and we definitely became a lot closer than we were.”
Alexander-Arnold’s familiarity within the senior setup alone recognises his remarkable progression over the past couple of seasons.
The right-back has slotted in superbly during Nathaniel Clyne’s injury absence this season, giving the more experienced latter a difficult route back to the starting lineup.
In sharing the workload well with Joe Gomez, the pair have foreshadowed a potential future full back/centre-back partnership on the right side of defence.
At 19, he is already a role model to those plying their trade in Neil Critchley’s U23s and Steven Gerrard’s U18s.