Andy Robertson on Tactical Trade-offs and Trent Alexander-Arnold's Defensive Stigma
Andy Robertson has lifted the lid on the tactical trade-offs that helped turn Liverpool into serial trophy winners – and why those same choices left Trent Alexander-Arnold carrying a defensive stigma he insists is wildly unfair.
Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool’s full-backs became weapons. Robertson down the left, Alexander-Arnold down the right: relentless runners, chance creators, assist machines. Together they helped drive Liverpool to the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title in 2020, season after season near the top of the assist charts.
But the Scot says the price of that attacking power was paid most often on Alexander-Arnold’s flank.
“I started to feel sorry for him”
Speaking on The Overlap, Robertson explained that Liverpool’s structure gave him a level of protection his partner on the opposite side simply did not enjoy.
On the left, he had Sadio Mane snapping into duels and racing back to help. If Robertson missed a tackle, Mane was usually there to clean up. On the right, it was different. Mohamed Salah’s role demanded he stay higher, closer to goal, not tracking all the way back towards his own box.
“With Mo, we didn’t want him coming back towards our box,” Robertson said. That meant Alexander-Arnold often had to hold his ground alone, waiting for a midfielder – frequently Jordan Henderson – to shuffle across and plug the gap. Sometimes that help arrived late. Sometimes not at all.
“A lot of times, Trent was waiting on someone like [Jordan Henderson] to come over, so, sometimes, I started to feel sorry for him,” Robertson admitted.
The tactical imbalance was deliberate, a choice to keep Salah in dangerous positions. But the visual effect was brutal: one side looked secure, the other exposed. And when Liverpool were countered, it was usually Alexander-Arnold left in the camera shot, backpedalling in isolation.
English spotlight, different rules
Robertson also pointed to another factor he believes has shaped the narrative around his former teammate: nationality.
“It’s very different when you are English, compared to another nationality,” he said. As a Scotland international, Robertson feels he has been judged on a different scale.
“I always said to Trent, ‘I will never get as much high praise as you, but I’ll never get as much criticism as you.’”
Alexander-Arnold’s errors, when they came, were replayed and dissected. His highlights often carried a caveat: yes, he can pass, but can he defend? That question has followed him from his Liverpool breakthrough all the way to Real Madrid.
Robertson is adamant the label is wrong.
“He locked out Mbappe”
The left-back pointed back to Liverpool’s run to the 2018 Champions League final as a turning point in the conversation – but not in the way many remember it.
Alexander-Arnold, then still a teenager, produced outstanding defensive displays against elite European forwards. Robertson recalled one night in particular.
“I’ve seen him lock out [Kylian] Mbappe at PSG,” he said. On the biggest stages, in Champions League finals, Robertson insists his old colleague was “unbelievable”.
“Trent is a very, very good defender… [in his] best games, he was an unbelievable one-v-one defender,” he added.
The Scot accepts that mistakes have crept in at times, as they do for any defender, but believes Alexander-Arnold has been carrying a tag he never deserved.
“Now, at times, he maybe makes mistakes. But we all do,” Robertson said. “But it’s if [Trent] had this stigma around him, that he can’t defend. And he’s had that from a very early age. It’s as if he can’t shift it.”
A career at a crossroads
The debate over Alexander-Arnold’s defending has not stayed in England. Even after his 2025 move to Real Madrid, the questions have followed him to Spain.
His time in La Liga has yet to catch fire. The 27-year-old’s Real Madrid career has stuttered, his future at the Bernabeu now uncertain as he battles to rediscover the level that once made him the most creative full-back in Europe.
For now, his attention turns back to the international stage. Called up to Thomas Tuchel’s latest England squad, Alexander-Arnold once again arrives with something to prove. Despite his club achievements, he has never nailed down a regular starting spot for the Three Lions.
New manager. Same old argument. Is he a luxury playmaker from right-back or a complete defender still trapped under an outdated reputation?
Robertson has already made his mind up. The rest of the football world, and perhaps Tuchel most of all, must now decide whether to see the system that left Alexander-Arnold exposed – or the defender who once shut down Mbappe and helped carry Liverpool to the summit of Europe.
