Anfield can be one of football’s more sentimental stadiums, but the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold tonight is likely to be an exception to that rule.
Ordinarily, a player with Alexander-Arnold’s achievements would be guaranteed a fond reception from Liverpool fans at a ground where he created so many happy memories.
But things are more complicated than that. Alexander-Arnold’s final weeks on Merseyside were messy: after it became clear he was going to leave for Real Madrid on a free transfer, supporters seemed unable to decide whether to jeer or cheer him, and abusive posters appeared on the streets around Anfield. Even his final act of lifting the Premier League trophy in front of the Kop generated a mixed response.
The supporters’ main frustration was that Alexander-Arnold ran down his deal and was prepared to leave for nothing. The expectation of a player who grew up in the West Derby area of the city and supported Liverpool as a boy, was that he could have helped the club further by commanding a transfer fee on his exit.
Posters attacking Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared around Anfield last season (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
The counter-argument is that, as an academy graduate, he saved the club a transfer fee, and then more than proved his worth as a key member of a successful side that won every domestic competition, as well as the Champions League, during his time at the club. The club also has to take its share of the blame for not securing him to new terms well before his contract expired.
The arguments are well-rehearsed. But it all means that seeing Alexander-Arnold in Real Madrid colours at Anfield will provide an intriguing sub-plot to what is already one of European football’s red-letter occasions, and all the more so given Liverpool need to prove that they have flushed out the poor form which saw them lose six games out of seven before Saturday’s win over Aston Villa.
The 27-year-old has recovered from a hamstring injury that initially threatened to rule him out of his game and travelled to Merseyside with the rest of the Madrid squad yesterday. He took part in a ceremony to pay tribute to the late Diogo Jota outside Anfield last night, alongside other Madrid representatives.
Trent Alexander-Arnold joins Xabi Alonso (second left) at the Diogo Jota memorial outside Anfield (Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
Alexander-Arnold is yet to play a minute since sustaining the setback on September 16. In Real Madrid’s last two games, he has been named among the substitutes, watching on as Federico Valverde filled in during Dani Carvajal’s absence through injury. That is likely to be where he starts again tonight.
Alexander-Arnold is still settling into new surroundings following his summer move, which ultimately earned Liverpool €10million (£8.8m; $11.5m) as Madrid wanted him to join in time for the Club World Cup.
He is trying to find his voice within the dressing room and is taking Spanish lessons for three hours a week to help with that. Having his England colleague and best friend in football, Jude Bellingham, as a team-mate helps — although they are yet to appear on the same pitch this season — but he’s also struck up relationships with Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe since joining.
If Alexander-Arnold features tonight, he says his feelings for his former club will not change based on the reception he receives. “I’ll always love the club,” he told Prime Sport.
Friends and ex-team-mates Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Ibrahima Konate have already been in touch, although Virgil van Dijk has not. “No, nothing personal whatsoever,” he told reporters on Saturday, when asked if the two had been in contact since Alexander-Arnold’s departure. “Obviously, I live my life and he lives his life in Madrid. I was very happy to have him in my team but now he’s an opponent and if he plays, then we have to make it very difficult for him to do what he’s good at.”
Amidst the anger at Alexander-Arnold’s departure, the fear that Liverpool would miss his footballing qualities felt rather overlooked. Yet that has undoubtedly been the case, as underlined by the fact that until this weekend’s 2-0 win over Villa, the champions had only kept two clean sheets across 14 games in all competitions.
The right-back position has also been the most unsettled, with Conor Bradley in and out of the team, Jeremie Frimpong suffering from two separate hamstring injuries and Dominik Szoboszlai asked to fill in when his strength is playing in central midfield.
That Bradley had his best game of the season at the weekend and completed 90 minutes was a positive for Arne Slot. When Liverpool last faced Real Madrid — a 2-0 win in last season’s league phase, a night when Slot didn’t even need to use Alexander-Arnold — it was Bradley’s thunderous tackle on Mbappe that everyone remembers, yet perhaps more pertinent was the muscle strain he later suffered that ruled him out of the next five weeks. His durability is now essential for Liverpool, as is building up the relationship with Salah that worked so well for Alexander-Arnold.
Bradley is not as creative as the man he’s replaced, although he offers other traits like underlapping runs into central areas, and Liverpool no longer have someone capable of making as many defence-splitting passes, or teasing deliveries into the penalty box.
The graphic below highlights Alexander-Arnold’s most frequent passes (of 15+ yards) last season and shows how those whipped, dangerous crosses into the box were such a threat.
The pass played quickly up the line to Salah was another useful tool of Alexander-Arnold’s, and has also been missed this season. The graphic below reiterates the strength of their relationship and suggests the right-back’s exit may be one of the factors behind the Egyptian’s relatively slow start to the season.
“You can see how much Liverpool have missed him, not just missing him at right-back but missing his creativity all over the pitch,” Jamie Carragher, the former Liverpool defender and now television pundit, tells The Athletic. “He’s a fantastic player, which is why Real Madrid, the biggest club in the world, wanted to sign him.
“He had that great combination with Salah, who this season has the knock-on effect of not having Trent behind him. He’s a wonderful player technically, and also one of the best passers in world football.”
It is undeniable that Slot’s side have not been as smooth in their build-up this season but there were positive signs at the weekend, with Salah more in tune with the team-mates around him — hardly surprising given the head coach reverted to a line-up that resembled something close to the title-winning team of last season.
That victory has improved the mood around Anfield at the perfect time, given this week’s meetings with Madrid and Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday.
How Liverpool fare against the Spanish champions may also influence the kind of reception Alexander-Arnold is afforded. It is unlikely that those who booed him at the end of last season have grown warmer to him since, while even his supporters during the contract stand-off may find it hard to applaud someone wearing the white of Madrid, one of Liverpool’s great European rivals.
It is an unusual situation. Other local heroes such as Carragher and Steven Gerrard planned their post-Liverpool career so they would never play against their former side. Like Alexander-Arnold, Steve McManaman ran his contract down and joined Real Madrid on a free transfer, but faced less opprobrium given Liverpool’s struggles at the time. Either way, he then waited nearly five years to face Liverpool at Anfield, and that was for Manchester City.
Alexander-Arnold is still adjusting to life in Madrid (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
When Robbie Fowler left for Leeds United in 2001, it was a transfer fuelled by a lack of game time rather than seeking a move to a bigger club. He also left for £11m with just 18 months of his contract remaining and received a hero’s welcome when returning to the club for a second spell five years later.
Players usually get a better reception if they’ve joined an inferior rival, as the sense of bettering yourself doesn’t tend to sit well with football fans at successful clubs with sky-high ambitions of their own. That was certainly true of Jack Grealish, who was jeered when returning to Aston Villa with Manchester City, despite earning the club £100m.
Carragher simply replies, “I think we all know the answer” when asked which of Alexander-Arnold or Xabi Alonso, the ex-Liverpool midfielder and now Madrid head coach, will get the better reception this evening but has little doubt the right-back will come good. “He’s been a bit unfortunate with the injury but I’m sure he will show the Real Madrid public exactly how good he is,” he adds.
Slot and Ryan Gravenberch were in diplomatic mood at UEFA’s pre-match press conference yesterday. Both professed to have no idea how fans will react, although the head coach did insist “he will get a warm welcome from me” thanks to efforts in the title-winning campaign.
Alexander-Arnold’s touching tribute to Jota, laid amid the flowers that are scattered outside Anfield in the Portuguese striker’s memory, underlined the added poignancy this return to Merseyside has for him.
Alexander-Arnold’s tribute to Diogo Jota (Guillermo Rai/The Athletic)
Nobody would dispute the sincerity of those words, although Alexander-Arnold must still know that his reputation at his old home remains bruised.
Even his sternest critics, however, would acknowledge what they lost when he ended his Liverpool love affair.