How Trent Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool are revolutionizing the fullback position

Fullback is typically an afterthought position in soccer. In your rec league game, it’s where you stick the new person who hasn’t proven that they can play. And at the highest level of the game, it’s where talented youth players go when they aren’t quite good enough at their primary positions to play there as pros.

Over the last 20 years or so, there have been two kinds of fullbacks: 1) converted central defenders who are good athletes, but not good in the air, and 2) converted wingers who have good athleticism and work rate, but aren’t tricky dribblers. There have been some exceptions, like the Brazilian duo of Marcelo and Dani Alves, but they were poor defensive players who needed cover from all-around dominant teams with the best center backs in the world. Most fullbacks go into the position with half the required skillset then try to learn the other half, hoping to make the most out of their talent.

But the fullback position doesn’t need to be mere filler on the pitch, something Liverpool right back Trent Alexander-Arnold is intent on proving. He and his partner in crime, left back Andy Robertson, have been two of Liverpool’s most creative players during the club’s year-long unbeaten run in the Premier League, in addition to playing well defensively.

Following Liverpool’s win over Sheffield United on Thursday, Alexander-Arnold gave an interview in which he talked about his ambition to revolutionize his position.

“We want to change the way the position has previously been thought about,” he said. “There’s the famous saying, ‘No one wants to grow up to be a fullback, or a Gary Neville,’ but we want to try and change that. We want to bring a different way of thinking about fullbacks, and I think that’s what we’ve been doing over the last 18 months.”

Alexander-Arnold has eight assists in the Premier League this season, second behind Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne. Robertson has six. No other defender has more than four. And both are major contributors to Liverpool’s buildup even when they don’t register assists. They’re Nos. 1 and 2 on Liverpool in xG Buildup, which StatsBomb describes as the expected goals of possessions that a player was involved in other than those in which they were shooting or assisting. In other words, they’re consistently making great passes early to start attacks.

Robertson is a slightly better passer than the average fullback, but he still plays the game fairly traditionally. He’s an up-and-down, athletic fullback who often gets crosses in from the byline. Alexander-Arnold is a bit different, however. He’s not quite as quick, or as good at dribbling as Robertson, but he’s probably the best long-range passer at fullback in the world.

Credit Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp for recognizing Alexander-Arnold’s talent and freeing him up to be a deep-lying playmaker. As Michael Caley points out, Liverpool constantly feeds the ball to Alexander-Arnold and asks him to try low-percentage passes, knowing he’ll connect a relatively high number of them and create clear-cut scoring chances for his forwards.

Fans often like to ruminate on how legendary players from the past whose positions have been eliminated might be used in the modern game. David Beckham had to learn how to play as a central midfielder at the end of his career, when 4-4-2 formations with wide midfielders who crossed from deep became outdated. Today, Beckham could have very well become a player like Alexander-Arnold.

Fullback doesn’t need to be a dumping ground position for hard workers who couldn’t hack it in other roles, and teams don’t necessarily have to choose between good attacking and good defending at the spot. As long as Liverpool can successfully focus play through its right back, other teams may soon begin searching for their own Alexander-Arnold.