The decision to move Trent Alexander-Arnold to right-back has had a negative impact on his career.
That is the view of eSPORTY’s Adrian Durham following Real Madrid’s Champions League exit this week.
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The Spanish giants were beaten by Bayern Munich on aggregate after a seven-goal thriller in Wednesday’s second leg.
Alexander-Arnold started at right-back for the Spanish giants as they failed to overturn their first-leg deficit.
Durham has now argued the decision to move the 27-year-old into defence as a teenager was ‘one of the worst’ in English football history.
The Liverpool academy graduate had featured in midfield and as a winger for the club’s youth teams growing up.
Alexander-Arnold also captained the Reds at academy level before being promoted into the first-team.
‘One of the worst football decisions ever’
Durham believes the decision to change his position was an ‘absolute shocker’, though.
He explained his stance on the latest episode of eSPORTY’s Fiery Fridays podcast.
Providing his latest hot take, Durham explained: “The decision ten years ago made at the Liverpool academy to move Trent Alexander-Arnold to right-back, I think goes down as one of the worst football decisions ever made in this country.
“I’ve thought long and hard about this because it’s a big, bold thing to say, ‘one of the worst ever,’ but I was trying to think of worse decisions.
“Players might have been let go and come back elsewhere, but that might have been good for them. But this decision is an absolute shocker.”
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Alexander-Arnold has featured further forward on the right and in central midfield during his senior career, albeit fleetingly.
He was most often played away from right-back by former England boss Gareth Southgate, who attempted to convert him into a midfielder.
As a result, Alexander-Arnold notably appeared in midfield for the Three Lions at Euro 2024, starting their opening two matches in the unfamiliar role.
However, since his summer transfer to Real Madrid, he has been deployed at right-back in all but one of his outings this season.
Alexander-Arnold’s position change
Justifying his claim, Durham continued: “If I just briefly take you through the history to give you the context of it, Trent captained Liverpool youth teams at all ages. He played centre mid, he played wide right mainly.
“So his strengths showed up in these positions, either passing from central midfield or crossing from wide right.
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“Then age 17, they put him at right-back, and I’ve read up on this and spoken to a lot of people about it as to why this happened.
“It feels like nobody’s really given me a definitive answer, but it feels like Trent was a bit moody and sulky and what they wanted to do was challenge him.
“They wanted him to have a different challenge to what he had because he had mastered what he was doing. So they put him at right-back and put him up against wingers and he was actually quite good.
“But we’re talking about him defending in the youth team against superstar wingers such as Bobby Adekanye, and you’ve never heard of him either.
“What about Yan Dhanda? You might have heard of Yan Dhanda, now playing in Scotland. Ben Woodburn, currently at Salford City in League Two. He looked okay against these wingers.”
The eSPORTY presenter is adamant Alexander-Arnold has been wasted in defence throughout his career.
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Despite not playing in an attacking position, the full-back provided 115 goal contributions during his time with Liverpool.
Alexander-Arnold scored 23 goals and added 92 assists in 354 appearances for the Reds.
Turning his attention back to Wednesday night, Durham added: “Without Jordan Henderson saving his backside at Liverpool defensively week in, week out, he’s now a liability, a massive weakness at Madrid.
“He literally stood there and watched Harry Kane step away from him in the box and score for Bayern as Real crashed out of the Champions league this week.
“Trent’s 27. His best moments have been going forward. You remember there’s a brilliant first time long ball to Bukayo Saka at Old Trafford to score a goal for England a few years ago.
“That corner against Barcelona, winning goal against Leicester in a crucial game in his last season when the Reds won the title.
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“Even last week in the first leg in the Champions League quarter, there was a brilliant low diagonal cross for (Kylian) Mbappe to score against Bayern in the first leg.
“Nobody remembers great defending or brilliant tackles from Trent Alexander-Arnold, mainly because there haven’t been any.
“So I wonder what sort of coaching we have in this country that decides that somebody with that immense talent should be a right-back.
“And I’ll ask you this question, would this have happened in Spain? Can you imagine the meeting a couple of years ago at Barcelona’s La Masia complex?
“Lamine Yamal, look what he’s doing on the wing. I know, let’s put him at right-back. It literally wouldn’t have happened.
“So that’s got to go down, Trent going to right-back in the Liverpool academy, got to go down as one of the worst football decisions ever in this country.”
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Alexander-Arnold now looks set to miss out on a place at this summer’s World Cup.
Despite winning 34 caps for England, he has not been included by Thomas Tuchel since June 2025.
The Three Lions boss excluded Alexander-Arnold once again last month despite him being fit and available.
Instead, Tino Livramento, Djed Spence and Ben White were called up ahead of him.
