Trent: We've sent a statement to title rivals – but don't rule Man City out yet

Trent Alexander-Arnold opens up about his ambitions and how Arne Slot has got Liverpool ticking in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News senior reporter Melissa Reddy…

Trent Alexander-Arnold is mid-answer, reclining on a couch at Liverpool’s training base, as a smile starts to take shape…

He is mentally rewinding to first learning Arne Slot would be his new head coach, recalling his immediate thoughts and arranging neatly with the reality of working with the Dutchman.

“You know change is coming,” the right-back tells Sky Sports News of the conversation he was having with himself. “But how big is it going to be?

“You don’t anticipate what to expect, because when you don’t know someone and you haven’t really seen much of their work – if I’m being honest – it’s unfair and it’s hard to base your opinions on that.

“But the level of detail he has… I find myself smiling about it because that’s the kind of thing that I really enjoy. It’s just football in like a very, very in-depth level.

“I could tell from the first time I met him that I was going to enjoy playing under him and being a part of this. I’m feeling like I’m going to get better and improve and learn so much in such a short space of time and just keep on learning, because I could tell he was football obsessed and the level of detail was incredible.”

Alexander-Arnold is sitting in a comfortable position – both on location, and with Liverpool being the pacesetters in England and Europe.

Top of the Premier League, top of the Champions League, and feeling like they’re on top of the world, it has been confusing for the outside world to understand exactly how the Merseysiders have morphed so effortlessly from Jurgen Klopp’s team to Slot’s side.

Transitioning from a titanic manager and closing the chapter on a beloved era can marmalise the best of clubs, yet Liverpool have flicked a switch and flipped the middle finger to convention.

Three of their core players – constructors of the glorious times under Klopp and co-ordinators of this fresh, mature and minimal-fault version of themselves – are out of contract this summer, and yet they kick on.

Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah, and Virgil van Dijk are in discussions over a new deal, but it has not been a distraction to them nor to the collective.

While the latter two have spoken about their situations on different occasions, the defender’s only comment on the matter was: “I have been at the club 20 years now, I have signed four or five contract extensions and none of those have been played out in public – and this one won’t be either.”

It is crystalline that Alexander-Arnold’s focus is on the here and now, on “winning multiple trophies. I think that’s the level that we’re at, that’s the level we’ve shown that we’re capable of, beating the best teams in the world.”

How did Liverpool shapeshift so seamlessly?

Alexander-Arnold breaks it down in fine detail to Sky Sports News…

Trent, Liverpool top of the Premier League, top of the pile in the Champions League. It sounds good, it must feel very good?

Of course, this is where we want to be. It is still early days, so we can’t get too excited. But if you told us this at the start of the season, we’d have massive smiles on our faces. We’re in a very, very good position, very strong position – more so in the league than the Champions League because it then becomes knockout football and what you’ve done so far doesn’t really matter. We just need to stay consistent over the next few months and put ourselves in the best position possible.

You said, if I told you this reality at the start of the season, there’d have been massive smiles. Surely it’s all gone better than anyone could have possibly imagined?

You don’t really tend to imagine. You especially don’t imagine a bad scenario where you’re struggling and you’re not picking up results and you’re struggling to find form. But you also never imagine you’ll be so far ahead at such an early stage in the season.

Especially with a big transition because historically we’ve seen when a great figure leaves a football club, it’s so hard to replace the manager and the stature around him. Yet it’s been so seamless for Liverpool…

Yeah, I think probably one of the reasons why it’s gone so smooth is that no one’s really tried to fixate on what we were. It was more: ‘we’re something new; we’re a new organism now’. Everything’s changed. You don’t really look back in the past and think, well, this is how we have done this.

This is how we did that. This is the manager’s new way, and you roll with it and you get behind it and you get used to it. That’s what we’ve done as a team from day one, to be honest.

Did you guys speak amongst yourselves as players about that?

We never so much spoke about it as a team, but it was the senior players in the team that send the message and set the tone of how it’s going to be. So the fact that we all bought into it straightaway meant that everyone had to. I think that’s something that may have helped the transition as well.

It’s only human and normal though when Jurgen left to be thinking: ‘What happens now? What comes next?’ It’s an unknown because the era was so great and was over a long period of time. Did you have any of that kind of nervousness?

I wouldn’t say nervousness. I would just say you don’t know how it’s going to be or what it’s going to look like. For such a long time you’ve always known where you stand and how things and you’re just so accustomed to the way that we play and your role within that.

You don’t find yourself worrying, but it’s more just you think about how big of a change it might be. Is it going to change everything? Are we going to completely forget everything we’ve done in the last eight years and adopt a brand new playing style? Is your whole lifestyle going to change? Are we going to start training at different times? You don’t know. So, you are kind of just thinking about how much is actually going to change. But the change hasn’t been too drastic, to be honest. Things have changed, but we’ve all enjoyed them and are enjoying them.

When Liverpool were going through the managerial search, there were a few names mentioned and then Arne Slot was confirmed as the new head coach. You guys didn’t really know much about him so what was your first reaction to hearing his name compared to the reality of working with him? How different is it from what you had anticipated to what you actually got?

You don’t have anticipation because when you don’t know someone and you haven’t really seen much of their work – if I’m honest – it’s unfair, and it’s hard to base opinions your opinions on that. Just the level of detail he has… I find myself smiling about it because that’s the kind of thing that I really enjoy.

It’s just football in like a very, very in-depth level. I could tell from the first time I met him that I was going to enjoy playing under him and being a part of this. I’m feeling like I’m going to get better and improve and learn so much in such a short space of time and just keep on learning because could tell he was, he was football obsessed and the level of detail was incredible.

What tweaks has he made that you have felt the benefit of?

He has explained a lot about how positioning is so important in football and where you are. Even when the ball’s completely on the other side, where you need to be. And that changes throughout games, and for each and every game depending on how the opposition is set up.

It depends on the opposition, so it changes a lot and that’s something that I like – to be challenged and have to think about things during games and feel like I’m being challenged. So, it’s something that I think suits my style of personality.

Speaking of challenges, on a personal level for you, the injury situation must have been quite frustrating. Are you finding the older you get, you handle those setbacks better? Or not?

No, they’re still really, really difficult. I’d be lying if I said, like, you get used to them because you don’t. You just want to play. That’s the only thing you want to do. And when you’re fit, you kind of take it for granted because you moan because training is too hard or you know, your legs are tired and you’ve not got enough time to recover and the games are coming so fast.

But the minute that’s taken away from you, that’s all you want. You want those feelings, you want to wake up feeling tired and stiff in the morning. They’re the things that you want, because it means that you’re fit and healthy and playing. All we want in football is just to be available. And I think that’s the most important thing for us.

Was it gutting as well – the timing?

Yeah. You miss big games. I mean these things happen. I had the international break as well which meant that I didn’t miss as many games as I could have. I was back able to play against Manchester City, so that was probably the important one for me. And that’s the one I aimed for as soon as it happened and (when) you find out how long it’s going to be, you kind of pick a fixture that you’d ideally want to be back for. And that was the one for me.

That fixture has actually been the defining one in the Premier League in recent seasons. Just looking at the top end of the table, are you surprised a bit by what’s happened to City this season?

Of course, of course. I think it’s a big surprise to everyone. I’ve always said that if you’ve ever got a chance to beat City, it’s always before Christmas. I think maybe they’re still finding their feet in the first three, four months of the season. And then after Christmas going into New Year, at that point you can forget about beating them.

You can honestly forget about it because not many teams do. Once they hit their stride, once it clicks around the new year, they’ll go five months without losing a game and they might draw one or two. But they’ll just win and just carry on winning. So I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case again.

They probably have dropped more points than they probably ever have (in recent times) so far this season, but they’re a team that have four in a row, won a treble. They are incredibly strong with world-class players and an incredible manager as well, of course. You can never rule them out and I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re back in the title race come the end of the season.

Some of the descriptions you used for them are how people are feeling about this version of Liverpool – that it’s so difficult to try and get the better of this team. It feels like a lot more of a mature Liverpool?

Yeah, it feels that way. When you do see the teams around you dropping points, it emphasises how much more important it is to get your results. In times like this, when teams are dropping points, you need to get your wins. That’s our main focus. It’s not about players going after the individual numbers.

Obviously they help, but it’s more just getting the results. Great, if we win 1-0 or if we win 5-0, it’s still three points. It doesn’t matter to us. We just want to make it as difficult as we can for the opposition.

You said don’t chase the individual numbers, but you are closing in on a hundred assists for Liverpool…

Am I? How many am I on?

You’re on 83, so you’re not that far away, which is honestly extraordinary and some going for “just a normal lad from Liverpool”

To be honest, I never thought I’d ever hit numbers like that. They were never an aim for me to reach a hundred assists or break records in that respect. But, the more you play, the more extravagant your dreams and ambitions become. So yeah, that’ll probably be the next thing: I try to hit that 100.

And those dreams and ambitions for the rest of the season collectively?

I think we win multiple trophies. I think that’s the level that we’re at, that’s the level we’ve shown that we’re capable of, beating the best teams in the world.

Making it look easy as well sometimes…

Yeah, especially the two games against Real Madrid and Manchester City. Of course they’re not easy, but when you are able to make it look that way, it just shows the quality of the players and the team and the understanding that we’ve got. So the strength is there, we know we’re capable of doing it. It’s just about being consistent. The hardest thing in football is consistency. We’re still not halfway through the season, so there’s a long, long way to go.

Those two games you mentioned, was it a big statement because there was this conversation of ‘Liverpool haven’t played anyone decent?’

Yeah, I think that was just a statement week for the team, for the club. Probably they are our two biggest rivals in Europe and domestically over the last five or six years. I guess we’ve struggled to overcome them as a team. So to beat them both in the space of a few days was something that really sent a statement to everyone that we’re a real team.

And whether they wanted to believe it before that or they don’t believe it still, it doesn’t bother us. We know what level we are. What others want to think about us doesn’t affect us. We know the quality we’ve got. We know what levels we can hit. We know we’ve still got a lot to improve and we will, and we’ll get better throughout the season, which I think is good for us and bad for anyone else.