Former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has labelled Reds stalwart Trent Alexander-Arnold England’s best right back.
The 21-year-old’s rise over the past few years has been meteoric, and Johnson believes the England international has very few equals these days.
“Of course Trent’s fantastic, and he could do the job in midfield, I have no doubt,” he told talkSPORT. “But what he’s great at is: as a defender coming into the attack everything’s in front of you. So he can see what he needs to do, and that’s what he’s great at.
“So, sometimes, you just don’t fix something that’s not broken.” Host Jim White then asked the ex England star whether Alexander-Arnold was the Three Lions’ best right back, to which he replied: “For me he is, yeah.”
"For me, he's England's best right-back." ?
"He's great when he's coming onto the ball and everything's in front of him."
"Don't fix something that's not broken." ?@Glen_Johnson on Trent Alexander Arnold and if he should play further forward. ? pic.twitter.com/7hjNhjfPrw
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 10, 2019
OPINION
Johnson is absolutely spot on, here. There’s simply no need to change anything in regards to Alexander-Arnold. He is doing a phenomenal job at right back where, as Johnson says, he is undoubtedly his country’s best. The demise of Kyle Walker with England tells you that Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate is incredibly keen to install Alexander-Arnold as his number one right back moving forward. The youngster has been superb for the Reds on the right hand side of the defence, and Klopp really has nobody else who can do as good a job as he can. Nathaniel Clyne is injured and isn’t in Klopp’s long term plans anyway, while Joe Gomez and James Milner are players who would have to operate out of position if they were to drop in at right back. So Alexander-Arnold is one of the German’s most indispensable players. There’s been talk of him moving into central midfield, but Liverpool are already well stocked in that area. Perhaps Southgate will experiment with that for England, but there’s no need for Klopp to do so.
