‘It’s brilliant’: Pundit thinks Liverpool star has the potential to become the best player in the world

By Ben Evans

Speaking on TalkSPORT (9/10 8:43am), Mark Lawrenson was assessing the Liverpool squad ahead of their match against Arsenal.

One player Lawrenson highlighted was defender Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The 24-year-old has been under the microscope all season for his attacking and defensive output.

However, Lawrenson believes Alexander-Arnold has the potential to become the best player in the world.

“What Trent (Alexander-Arnold) gives you going forward makes up for a certain lack of defensive awareness and positioning.” Lawrenson said.

“You’re not going to change him, I mean the England manager has made his decision when it comes to Trent, which is fine as far as he’s concerned.

“The thing with Trent is, he supplies so much ammunition, so many chances and then scores himself.

“It’s one of those things, if he was as good defensively as he was going forward, he’d be the best player in the world, he is that good.

“I mean, his delivery, you’d love to play as a centre-forward with him, because he just hits you with the ball, it’s brilliant.”

Alexander-Arnold has potential to be best in the world

There are few players in the Premier League capable with vision and the ability to execute passes like Alexander-Arnold.

His excellent free-kick against Rangers in the Champions League this week shows how well he can strike a ball.

However, his defensive contributions have been criticised, with Graeme Souness suggesting he needs more help at the back.

He’s in the bottom 20% of full-backs in Europe for tackles made, pressures, blocks and clearances (as per FBRef).

This is also down to the system that Jurgen Klopp plays more than anything else, with Alexander-Arnold asked to play very high up the pitch.

The claim from Lawrenson that Alexander-Arnold could be the best player in the world is a massive one.

There’s certainly an argument that even as a better defender he might not even be Liverpool’s best player.

However, he certainly knows what he needs to work on going forward.

If the form of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip also improves this will help Alexander-Arnold to improve as well.