Paul Merson has compared Trent Alexander-Arnold’s passing range to that of midfield sensation Kevin De Bruyne.
The 54-year-old is the latest pundit to push for the fullback to eventually make a move into the middle of the park to fully utilise the aforementioned trait for the benefit of the team.
“The way I see it, England are producing good midfield players, but they aren’t really prolific passers of the ball like Thiago or Jorginho,” the former England international told Sportskeeda.
“Declan Rice is an excellent box-to-box midfielder, while Kalvin Phillips is a player who is more about his work-rate and industry than his passing.
“Trent Alexander-Arnold played as a midfielder in his younger days at Liverpool and also did so once for England.
“It’s a difficult position as the game literally goes through you, so you need to be a lot more involved over the course of the 90 minutes.
“His passing range is up there with the best in the country along with De Bruyne, so I’d like to see him play in midfield at some point in the future.”
A prior experiment in the middle of the park, whilst filing out for Gareth Southgate’s England, didn’t quite go to plan, however, and actually ended up almost excluding the 23-year-old from the action.
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Whilst we can understand the vague logic behind moving our prize fullback higher up the pitch, it overlooks the obvious flaw in that it would severely compromise our style of play.
Given that our fullbacks remain central to Jurgen Klopp’s system, providing bombing runs down the flanks and allowing Alexander-Arnold to see the full length of the pitch ahead of him, pushing the Scouser ahead would limit his sphere of influence.
With all due respect to Merson, it’s an idea that makes sense only in principle and remains unlikely to benefit Liverpool or England anytime soon.