Trent Alexander-Arnold will be a bigger loss than Virgil van Dijk

Liverpool will be devastated by the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The world-class right-back was substituted after an hour as the Reds drew 1-1 against Pep Guardiola’s City, and that one moment could have massive repercussions.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is set to be out for four weeks, reported the Daily Mail. He will now miss five games: three in the Premier League and two in the Champions League.

Leicester City, Wolves and Brighton can now breathe a sigh of relief, as will Ajax and Atalanta. The work they have to do in containing Liverpool down the right just got a whole lot easier.

This latest blow continues the team’s rough luck with injuries to key defensive personal. As if Virgil van Dijk missing the rest of the season wasn’t bad enough, Jurgen Klopp has had to cope with Alisson, Joel Matip and Kostas Tsimikas being absent at various times.

While that van Dijk blow is serious, this one could be worse. While van Dijk was the defensive heartbeat of the side, Klopp can devise ways of playing that help to mitigate the loss of the Dutchman and the team are better prepared to cope without the former Southampton man.

At right-back, Liverpool have no competition. Neco Williams has shown flashes of potential but has begun his fledgling professional career with a series of ups and downs – as to be expected at this stage.

While he can be a threat going forward, his defensive qualities still need work and Williams will not be able to create like Alexander-Arnold can. Nobody else in the squad can.

When van Dijk went down, Liverpool had Matip or Gomez to turn to, in theory. With Alexander-Arnold, Klopp is faced with a poverty of options. If might only be five games, but it could change the course of the first half of the season.

We saw last season how vital Alexander-Arnold was to Liverpool moving forward and defense as he rapidly proved to be one of the team’s most important players.

Liverpool have been robbed of that, and it’s a massive problem.