Former England striker Darren Bent has voiced his excitement about seeing Trent Alexander-Arnold adopting an inverted full-back role for Liverpool, believing the 24-year-old to be the best exponent of that position in the Premier League.
The Reds’ last two games against Arsenal and Leeds saw the Anfield academy graduate playing slightly further up the pitch and away from the touchline than his nominal right-back position would suggest, and he excelled against the Whites by setting up two goals in the 6-1 drubbing at Elland Road.
Indeed, as highlighted by OptaJoe on Twitter, he became just the fourth player to register two or more assists, complete more than 100 passes and achieve a 90%+ pass accuracy in a single Premier League match since such metrics were first recorded in 2003/04.
Speaking to Andy Goldstein on talkSPORT Drive, Bent hailed the qualities of Trent in his new role and is hugely excited about seeing the Liverpool star featuring in such a position more regularly.
The ex-Tottenham striker said: “That’s his role. He’s the inverted full-back, and because of his technique and ability on the ball, he could probably play that role better than any full-back in the league.
“That inverted full-back role, [Oleksandr] Zinchenko is unbelievable at it in terms of dropping in – Trent’s got better technique than Zinchenko, his range of passing. If you can get the best out of Trent playing in that position, oh my goodness…”
Trent’s superb performance against Leeds in particular should see him continuing in that inverted full-back role for the next few games at least, potentially becoming a more fixed brief in the long-term if it keeps paying dividends for him and the team.
You can catch the clip of Bent discussing the Liverpool defender below, via talkSPORT on YouTube (from 2:38):