Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, has struggled to get going. Madrid paid €10m to release the full-back from his contract early so that he could play at the Club World Cup and being acclimatising to Xabi Alonso’s demands as soon as possible. But after an underwhelming summer in the United States, Alexander-Arnold then suffered a hamstring injury in early September that ruled him out for six weeks.
A further muscle injury followed in December that kept him on the sidelines for another two months, by which time Alonso had been sacked while another ex-Liverpool right-back, Alvaro Arbeloa, had been placed in charge.
Alexander-Arnold is now belatedly finding his feet under Arbeloa, who has taken more of a hands-off approach when it comes to tactical configurations than his predecessor. Arbeloa has put faith in youth, and, for the most part, allowed his best players to figure things out for themselves, much like Carlo Ancelotti did before Alonso’s short tenure.
For Alexander-Arnold, that has meant learning how to operate with the best in the world on the fly, but he needs regular games to do so. The 27-year-old has played just 754 minutes in La Liga this season, and even though he has provided four assists, including two in his last two games, he still looks an awful lot like a player still settling in at a new club.
This is natural, of course. Alexander-Arnold spent his entire professional career until last summer on Merseyside, where he was a crucial cog in a well-oiled machine. Here, there are fewer guardrails, with Madrid’s football more off the cuff. Alexander-Arnold is yet to fully adapt to such an environment.
