Trent was back to his transformative best against Villa

The first few matches of the season, while they have mostly been positive for Liverpool, saw Trent Alexander-Arnold get somewhat lost in the shuffle. He was not dominating matches when in possession like we’d seen the last few months of 2022-23 campaign.

It looked like Trent had lost a clear definition of where we was supposed to be as the lack of a defensive midfielder coupled together with two new signings, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, proved to stymie a bit of the normal Liverpool midfield fluidity.

However, as the new lads have gotten more accustomed to what will be expected of them, Trent has slowly brought himself back into the fold.

The comfortable win against Aston Villa on Sunday was his breakout performance for the young season. The only downside being his hamstring knock that has since seen him withdraw from England duty.

The 70 minutes he was on the pitch though, he was brilliant. His unrivaled long balls were back on full display as he was constantly hunting for chances to punish the Villa backline.

This was the first time this season that it looked like Trent knew exactly what was expected of him on the field. I do believe the fact that Darwin Nunez got the start and that he is always willing to make runs in-behind suits Alexander-Arnold.

Liverpool’s No. 66 is always trying to be as progressive as he can be when he sprays the ball and Nunez is a perfect player for that mentality.

Defensively, the few times Villa made a push, Trent was solid and where he needed to be. There were no mental lapses on this day as everything was just clicking for the vice-captain.

While on the ball, he was constantly driving at the Aston Villa defense which was also nice to see. His confidence was very high as he took on some long range efforts that we’ve seen him connect on in the past.

Again, the only drawback from all of this was him pulling up with a bum hamstring. However, Jurgen Klopp has since stated that Trent told him he doesn’t think it to be serious.

The long international break should provide him plenty of time to recover and get ready for Wolves. If he can keep this level up and continue to grow his partnership with Szoboszlai in particular on the right side, the Reds could be cooking with fire.

Nunez must keep starting up top as the Alexander-Arnold through balls combined with the Uruguayan’s pace will certainly lead to a plethora of chances every match.

For now, it was nice to see Trent get back to his game changing ways and he once again showed the ability to raise those around him.