Would Dutch Defender Be The Best Replacement For Alexander-Arnold?

Emotion is still raw on Merseyside over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s decision to leave Liverpool. The club’s fans made that clear in their response to the 26-year-old’s introduction off the bench against Arsenal on Sunday with Alexander-Arnold booed by large sections of the Anfield crowd. Liverpool supporters are hurt.

Alexander-Arnold is expected to join Real Madrid as a free agent this summer. In some ways, there will be no replacing the right back. He is one of the best players in the world in his position and has changed how right-sided defenders are viewed such are his natural levels of creativity and attacking threat.

Nonetheless, Liverpool will need reinforcement in the backline with Jeremie Frimpong reportedly on the radar. The Netherlands international was a key part of the Bayer Leverkusen team that won the Bundesliga title last season, contributing 16 goal contributions as Xabi Alonso’s side finished top of the German top flight.

This is a quality that has surely drawn Liverpool to Frimpong. Like Alexander-Arnold, he is most effective with the game ahead of him, although Frimpong is a very different sort of right back. He isn’t a true right back at all, instead playing as a right wing back in Alonso’s system. This role doesn’t exist in Arne Slot’s Liverpool set-up.

While Alexander-Arnold is a player who likes to create through his crossing and long-range passing, Frimpong prefers to use his speed and directness to get into dangerous positions. Alonso has used the Dutchman as a funnel into the final third for Leverkusen and Slot could utilise him in the same way.

Defensively, Alexander-Arnold was widely criticised for several flawed performances over the course of his Liverpool career. Frimpong isn’t any stronger in a defensive sense and so his addition to the Liverpool squad would be made with the attack in mind. This is where he would have an impact.

Slot guided Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season at the club, but there is a lot of work to be done in the transfer window this summer. Darwin Nunez could be replaced as Slot seeks a new centre forward. Andy Robertson’s time as Liverpool’s first-choice left might be over. Many fans believe a new central midfielder is also required. Replacing Alexander-Arnold, however, is at the top of the to-do list for the summer.