Neville: Trent has reached a really important stage of his career.

Gary Neville believes that there is no doubt in his mind that Trent-Alexander Arnold can become the greatest right-back that this world has ever produced.

 

But to reach that lofty standard, he has fix some of the areas that are currently letting him down.

 

The game of Football has never been more dissected than it is today. The manager and his assistants have enough on their plate to deal with on a day to day basis, therefore the role of opposition analysts have never been more vital, watching hours of tape of upcoming opponents and pinpointing areas that can be used to the advantage of their team.

 

There is little doubt that the weaknesses of Alexander-Arnold’s game are under the microscope and wherever you turn everyone seemingly has an opinion on what he needs to fix.

 

The full-back is not the first, and most certainly won’t be the last player to feel this kind of heat as it simply comes with the territory of being a modern day footballer.

 

And for quite a few of them, this period of their career makes them better all-round players. 

 

The natural talent of Alexander-Arnold is unquestionable and speaking on Sky Sports Monday Night Football (per the Echo), Neville said he would not change a thing about his attacking instincts but it is some of the basics that he can look at.

 

“If you look at Trent’s stats in the last four seasons since 2018 [44 assists, 315 chances created] - that is absolutely obscene. Just to put that into perspective, I played 400 games in the Premier League and had 35 assists, he’s got 44 in his last four seasons at the age of 23. It is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe those numbers.

 

“So what we've got here is one of the great talents that this country has produced in his position, but a couple seasons ago I did say I thought there would come a point where...I used the phrase ‘not to be serious about his defence.

 

“Trent is not a young player anymore. He’s young in his age, but he’s actually got 250 matches for Liverpool and England, that's a mountain of games to have. So what surprises me still when I watch him, is three or four of the very basic things of full-back play.

 

“In transition, you have to go forward now as a full-back, you have to then sprint back. We just saw a clip that Carra showed against Newcastle he doesn't always sprint back, in fact he ambles back at times.

 

“In 1v1 defending, keep your body position low and crouched, body shape should be opened when the ball is on the opposite side of the pitch - these are areas where you will concede goals as a full-back - and then when you’re in the box you have to scan, you have to rotate your head."

 

 

Speaking from years of personal experience in the full-back position, Neville highlighted that Alexander-Arnold's general starting stance is something that can be easily rectified.

 

“Trent finds himself in a very upright position, a very relaxed, upright position. The problem with that is you can't sprint from that position, you can't change direction, you can't swivel your head from that position. Your head is the heaviest part of your body, your studs have to be close to the ground so you can set off and you have to be ready.

 

“You very rarely see Trent in that position where he looks alert. He always jogs out in an upright position.

 

“No defender really slips unluckily in my opinion. You slip because you’ve not been in the right position, you’ve panicked and you’ve not been alert enough to start with. I think these are really basic things for him. The hard part of the game he’s doing."

 

“No full-back that I've ever seen in this country can do what he can do so if he can just work on those basic things and get those consistency elements with those things, we won't just have one of the best attacking right-backs this country has ever produced, we’ll have probably the best right-back the world has ever produced, because this is a Cafu. 

 

“This is that level of full-back. This is something unbelievably special.”

 

And while missing out on the World Cup may be a bitter personal pill to swallow, Neville believes in the long term it could be the thing that makes him the complete Footballer.

 

“This is an important juncture in his career where you say ‘right, what does he do?’ Does he think ‘I don't have to do that, I don't want to do that’. I would urge him to just work for two, three, four months.

 

“Have these players got time to be coached? They've got games all the time, when do you put the work in to do this? 

 

“There might be a negative in him not going to the World Cup - that might be the biggest positive in his career if he can have five or six weeks here, just being coached and working on these things. He’s someone that I think is absolutely unbelievable but he’s at a really important moment in his career.”