Had Jurgen Klopp listened to warnings from his recruitment staff about Andy Robertson’s defending, the Scot may never have become the left-back in Liverpool’s title-winning side of 2019-20.
It was summer 2017, Liverpool had made left-back a transfer priority, after midfielder James Milner played much of the previous season in that position, and drew up a shortlist.
Benjamin Mendy was top of the list, but Liverpool were aware of Manchester City’s interest and thought, rightly, they’d be priced out. Roma’s Emerson Palmieri featured prominently, then badly injured his knee.
As they weighed up other options attention turned to a 23-year-old full-back who had been catching the eye with his attacking play at Hull City, but whose defensive statistics raised serious questions, not least because Hull had conceded 80 goals in a relegation season.
Ian Graham, at the time the club’s head of research and a key figure in transfer decisions, recalls what happened in his new book, How to Win the Premier League.
“Jurgen proved critical” in Robertson’s £8m move, Graham writes. “When warned of our uncertainty about Robertson’s defending, he replied that he didn’t care if he could defend or not; he needed his left-back to attack. He could solve any defensive problems by giving Robertson more cover.
“I was impressed by Jurgen’s practical approach. Rather than demanding the perfect player, he was willing to find creative solutions to maximise each player’s strengths and minimise their weaknesses.
“He often talked of his preference for players with one or two ‘extreme characteristics’ – game-changers. If and when those game-changers had weaknesses, he was willing to use other players to compensate for them.”
The same formula was applied on the other side of defence with Trent Alexander-Arnold. Klopp built a system around these thrilling attacking full-backs who would win them the Premier League two seasons later with expansive, flank-to-flank football, defined by Alexander-Arnold’s dynamic passing and crossing, and Robertson’s ferocious pace.
It always baffled Klopp why Gareth Southgate didn’t apply the same logic to Alexander-Arnold and England – finding a system that allowed what he considered one of the most talented footballers to emerge for England in recent years to play in his own unique right-quarter-back role.
Southgate tried Alexander-Arnold at right-back, but was frightened off by his frailties defensively. Later, he tried him in central midfield in an experiment that failed in the first two games of Euro 2024.
Alexander-Arnold became a stick with which pundits and fans constantly beat the England manager.
Despite his successes, Southgate could never escape criticism for the perception that he played cautious football, and it is a marked difference in the first two games of interim replacement Lee Carsley, who is following, whether knowingly or not, Klopp’s approach.
Alexander-Arnold was handed attacking freedom from right-back in the Nations League games against the Republic of Ireland and Finland and was the standout player. At Wembley, against the latter, when he frequently came inside to play as a deeper-lying central midfielder, or in the No 10 hole, or pushed on down the right, central midfielder Angel Gomes would cover, or centre-back Ezri Konsa came across, or even, on one occasion, left-back Rico Lewis switched sides.
“The first thing I look at in a player is what they’re really good at, rather than what they can’t do,” Carsley said after the Finland match. “The stuff they can’t do we try and hide.”
It is right out of the Klopp playbook, and something Carsley admitted he has had to force himself to adapt to as a coach. When he first started coaching he trained players to be like the player he was – a solid, dependable, hard-working yet unexciting defensive midfielder. It was not how he believed football should be played.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to adjust your eye to players who are more creative and make more mistakes but make more chances and create more chances and they hurt the opposition more. So I’ve had to adjust to my way,” Carsley explained.
A 50-yard pass that Alexander-Arnold hit through the Republic of Ireland’s defence to send Anthony Gordon through was exquisite (Gordon missed the one-on-one but it led to the opening goal). England haven’t had a player who can pass with that range and consistency since David Beckham.
The trade-off is – and always has been – will a defensive error lead to a goal that knocks England out of a major tournament in a quarter-final or semi-final? Is Southgate’s dogged pragmatism more suited to knockout football?
But, after failing to quite get over the line, maybe it’s time for another way of thinking, as Gary Lineker, who has always been Team Trent, explained on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“I think it’s great to see Trent in the side,” Lineker said after the Republic of Ireland game. “Some of his passes were superb, particularly the one that he hit for Anthony Gordon that led to the first goal. I mean, what a pass that was.
“And it just strikes me, I just think: how can this guy not be in the team somewhere? He’s so good. But I think it was that thing. All we’ve ever focused on is Trent’s weaknesses when it comes to England. And defensively, oh, he might make a mistake. But he might make one mistake, but he might give you two or three opportunities to score because he’s so brilliant with the ball at his feet.”
Carsley’s approach is certainly an intriguing idea, and bodes well for the abundant talents of Phil Foden, Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Gordon, as well as Alexander-Arnold. But balancing all of those strengths and weaknesses, finding cover and fluidity and coherence, will require the skill and concentration of a trapeze artist.
“Managers can improve players, but they do so mainly by putting players in systems that maximise their strengths and minimise their weaknesses,” Graham writes in his book.
“This is certainly one of Jurgen’s skills: he often spoke of finding players with ‘extreme characteristics’ and working on tactical plans to cover up weaknesses in their game.”
Klopp may not want the England job, but one of his foundational principles might give the current incumbent the edge England require to go that one step further.
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