Gary Neville says he has “never seen” a full-back like Trent Alexander-Arnold and compared the Liverpool star to Steven Gerrard and Kevin De Bruyne.
Alexander-Arnold scored a screamer in the midweek win over Newcastle before putting in another fine display in the draw at Tottenham, setting up fellow full-back Andy Robertson.
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The England international now has two goals and 11 assists in 19 games this season and Neville hailed his, and Robertson’s, contribution to Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Neville said on his podcast: “I don’t think I’ve seen two full-backs play in the Premier League that are as good as these two as a pair.
“The way in which they combine on the pitch, the way they play the game, they’re an absolute joy.
“Robertson with his consistency does everything well. Defends well, he’s competitive – slightly too much at the end – but he scored a goal and set up a goal.
“Alexander-Arnold is an absolute phenomenon when it comes to the quality of his passing, his delivery. It’s something I’ve never seen before from a full-back.
“It’s like De Bruyne, it’s Beckham, it’s Gerrard, and they’re attacking players. He’s playing at right-back, it’s the highest accolade I could pay him.
“The contribution these two make is unbelievable. It’s bizarre to me. I grew up saying let the full-back have it. You can’t let these two have it.”
Klopp insists that despite Alexander-Arnold’s brilliance, there is room for improvement.
Klopp said: “There is enough space and enough time for him to improve his game in so many parts: reading situations better, dealing with situations better, so many parts of the game he can improve and he is already a world-class player.
“I didn’t ask him but probably when he grew up and he watched Liverpool games he saw Steven Gerrard quite frequently scoring goals like this and knowing you have a very good shooting technique yourself you want to score these kind of goals.
“It’s not the case that he is 20 times a game in the position in the half-left half-space where he scored the goal from yesterday.
“But scoring from there is obviously something he might have to wait another five years for because it’s just not his position.”
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