Liverpool news: Have Reds already had the best of Trent Alexander-Arnold?

While Trent Alexander-Arnold’s impact and influence on Liverpool is clear, the levels of what the Reds could be losing may not be as high as many might think.

That is because Liverpool might have already seen the best of the 26-year-old.

Alexander-Arnold’s attacking output is something that has been very rarely – if ever – seen from a right-back.

Across all competitions since making his debut under Jurgen Klopp in the League Cup in October 2016, the England international has played 349 games, scored 22 goals and provided 87 assists.

In that time he has also ranked first among his team-mates in the Premier League for crosses, chances created, touches and successful passes.

However, how those goals and assists have been distributed season by season shows an interesting trend.

Understandably, his first two seasons in the senior team saw his lowest output for goal contributions as he found his way into the first team. But, 2018-19 to 21-22 saw three of the full-back’s best seasons in terms of goals and assists.

The Covid season of 2020-21 is a noticeable outlier among those four campaigns, but that drop-off does correlate with a dip in performance for Liverpool as a whole after winning the Premier League the year before.

From 2022, a more gradual decline becomes apparent.

As shown in the above graph, there has been an overall downward trend in Alexander-Arnold’s goal contributions per game since his peak campaigns.

With a realistic possibility that the academy graduate may have played his last game for the club already given his current injury, 2024-25 would be his lowest for goal contributions per game since that difficult 2020-21 season.

According to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, Real Madrid’s pursuit of Alexander-Arnold began in 2023, so whether there is an aspect of distraction in the decline in output it is hard to say.

But, at an age where many footballers would be entering their peak years, there is a question whether Alexander-Arnold’s have already been seen in a Reds shirt.