Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold leads the way in certain ‘failure’ statistics, but they’re all wrong and this is why.
Failure stats are the ugly offspring of the troll economy and they only tell an inconsequential sliver of what it takes to be an elite footballer.
Which is why the one WhoScored peddled on their Twitter account about Trent Alexander-Arnold being the master of failure is disappointing to see.
Those emojis and the 25 word statement about how often the youngster has conceded possession are completely without context and fail to describe his role in the side.
More from Rush The Kop
- Set to return, Virgil Van Dijk facing heavy criticism back home
- Liverpool making late comebacks all the rage once again
- Wolves tilt gives Klopp opportunity to tinker with lineup following international duty
- Players to watch in the matchup with Wolves
- Predicting Liverpool’s Next Five Premier League Fixtures
These are the facts: TAA lost possession 736, a league high. That is true and we can’t debate it. But it fails to look at why, or what Alexander-Arnold is trying to do when he gives the ball away.
Because Liverpool set up like they do, and because Trent is such a good passer and distributor of the ball, he has license to get forward and put crosses into the box but also to ping those incredibly difficult long balls that stretch play and help overload a side of the pitch.
You can be the best crosser in the world but it takes two to tango and if there’s nobody on the end of it, or if the defender is only slightly quicker than the attacker, you lose possession. But that’s not a bad thing. The ball may still be in a dangerous area, it may get recycled and the resulting pressure could lead to a goal – all because of something that’ll end up as lose possession and ammunition in the football troll’s arsenal.
Other context should be provided, too. Alexander-Arnold has had the most touches out of anyone in the league with 2,548. Kevin de Bruyne has had 1,896.
So feel free to post those failure stats, but framing them as a piece of trolling but you more harm than good and totally overlooks the point of the failure and the context surrounding it in the first place.