Trent Alexander-Arnold solves Pep Guardiola puzzle as Liverpool ‘quarterback’ shines

The Scouse defender was central to everything during the bout in a tactical sense. Guardiola seemed to identify him as a major threat in possession who simply had to be managed when his team didn’t have the ball, but while also targeting him when City were building attacks.

Alexander-Arnold is known for his specific qualities as a footballer. He is praised for his elaborate passing range and his supreme technique, having almost painted himself as a quarterback of sorts over the last few years. When he’s forced to defend, though, he is often found wanting in uncomfortable situations.

Guardiola recognised as much at the Etihad. He gave him the necessary respect with his defensive approach by essentially instructing Bernardo Silva to mark him whenever he moved towards the middle of the park, Since April, Alexander-Arnold has evolved into an inverted full-back who sees plenty of the ball near the centre circle.

The Reds vice-captain has been in favour of the shift, as it has allowed him to become an orchestrator for Klopp. “It creates a lot more opportunities and options for me on the ball,” he told Sky Sports in an interview recently. “On the right side of the pitch you are quite limited because most of the time you are quite close to the touchline so you cannot pass to the right. When you are in the middle, you can pass left and right.”

Alexander-Arnold is a unique talent right now, as he’s capable of running games from anywhere. For his national team, for example, Gareth Southgate recently deployed him as a full-time midfielder, purely as a means of getting him on the pitch with Kyle Walker known to be England’s first-choice right-back.

Guardiola made a conscious attempt to nullify his central movements on the weekend. Alexander-Arnold stated as much in his post-match interview at the Etihad, stating: “I think there was potentially a game plan to stop me from getting the ball in midfield, at least that’s what it felt like, especially in the first half, a little bit of man-marking.

“I think Bernardo was very close to me a lot when I was pulling inside. I mean, I could be completely wrong, and I could just be talking nonsense, but I’m pretty sure that was the game plan, it felt like that. So, it was about trying to get on the ball in different ways and I think I adapted to it. I tried to pull out a little bit wider.”

Indeed, as a consequence of how the Portuguese midfielder behaved, Alexander-Arnold proceeded to play as a conventional right-back in the early stages of the game, rolling back the years to play as a full-back who hugged the touchline. It was his way of getting on the ball considering he would have been marked out of the game if he continued to roam towards the middle.

Guardiola’s defensive structure was largely flawless throughout the match, with Liverpool only posting eight shots, down from their usual average of around 17 per match for the season. Lots of that defensive success originated from the plan to stop Alexander-Arnold, but City’s approach was different in attack.

Whenever the home side had the ball, they would feed Jeremy Doku on the left side of the pitch. The Belgian international is a master trickster, and he was Alexander-Arnold’s direct opponent. Ahead of the match, Doku had completed a total of 31 successful dribbles in the Premier League this term, placing him joint-top of the division alongside two players who had both played more minutes than him.

Last season, while representing Rennes, Doku placed second in Ligue 1 for successful dribbles behind only Lionel Messi, who played almost twice as often as him. The City wonderkid is a nightmare for opposition defenders, and it was Guardiola’s plan to use him against Alexander-Arnold.

Doku completed 11 dribbles against the Reds number 66, which was the most by any player in a single Premier League game since September 2021. He was a menace but despite his display as a dangerous forward, he failed to truly impact the result. His mazy runs were often coupled with no real end product, allowing Liverpool to escape without being punished.

Despite the offensive numbers posted in possession by Doku, Alexander-Arnold performed reasonably well against him. Manchester United legend Gary Neville said as much in his post-match podcast, having also presented him with the Man of the Match award after the final whistle.

Later in the game, as Liverpool pushed for an equalising goal having gone 1-0 down after 27 minutes, Alexander-Arnold started to move inside more often, with Klopp making adjustments to solve Guardiola’s watertight Bernardo puzzle. After 80 minutes, the Reds talisman arrived on the edge of the penalty box and fired beyond Ederson to level the scoring.

He was involved in everything. Guardiola was more eager to stop him than any other Liverpool player, but he was more eager to attack him than any other Liverpool player, too. Nevertheless, Alexander-Arnold rose to the challenge, just as he has done on a whole host of occasions since his emergence to the pinnacle of the sport, scoring his team’s only goal of the game.

“It was one that we needed as a team,” he said when asked about his goal, and based on his modern development into more of a conductor for Liverpool of late, it won’t be the last that he scores under Klopp’s tutelage. Guardiola tried to highlight his flaws while masking his strengths, but despite his best efforts, the reverse ended up happening.