After months of speculation, Real Madrid are seemingly set to secure the signing of free agent right back Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool, and recent reports indicate that the 26-year-old England international will sign a five-year deal with the Royal Whites.
Alexander-Arnold’s transfer would be the next in a line of high-profile free agent signings made by Real Madrid, whose president Florentino Perez has made it a goal to either sign superstars or free agents – and nothing in between.
Like Kylian Mbappe last summer, Alexander-Arnold would fall into both categories as a superstar free agent who has been on the Real Madrid transfer radar for several seasons now.
And his arrival would come at an opportune time, as current starting right back Dani Carvajal – the only senior right back in the squad – suffered a torn ACL early in the 2024/25 season.
Alexander-Arnold will come to Real Madrid with a lot to prove, as his final season at Liverpool was a bit underwhelming and, partially because of the incessant transfer rumors, led to some fans turning on him and highlighting his defensive woes.
Pundits in England are already teeing off on the talented 26-year-old, including one who has never been a fan of Liverpool, former Manchester United fullback Gary Neville.
Appearing on the Stick to Football podcast, Neville tore into Alexander-Arnold defensively after stating that he feels Carvajal is a better right back than the Liverpool star:
“I said he needs to get more serious about his defending, and that was proven by the fact he couldn’t get in the England team for many years, and he gets subbed for Liverpool a lot. I’ve never known a right-back get subbed so many times in important periods of matches.”
First things first, there’s no shame in being second-best to Carvajal. In fact, being second-best to Carvajal would mean that Alexander-Arnold is second-best to the best right back in the world and one of the most accomplished right backs in the history of this game.
Carvajal is a six-time Champions League winner and a European Champion, having won both competitions last season as the best right back in the world and a legitimate Ballon d’Or candidate overall.
There’s no doubt that Carvajal is a better defensive fullback than Alexander-Arnold, but this idea that TAA is such a tremendous defensive liability that he was “subbed” so many times in big games or couldn’t crack it at Real Madrid is entirely laughable.
It’s also not backed up by the statistics. Alexander-Arnold is in the 78th percentile in tackles and 84th percentile in interceptions among all fullbacks, meaning he is far from some schlub defensively.
There are people who will point out how often Alexander-Arnold is dribbled past or highlight certain clips, but 1) many offensive fullbacks get dribbled past a lot because they have to be aggressively positioned in order to get forward and 2) you can make literally any fullback in the world look terrible with “fail comps” – clowns use to do that all the time to Carvajal in the past.
The minute Alexander-Arnold leaves Liverpool as a homegrown player for a bigger Champions League title rival in Real Madrid, the more people, especially in England, will turn on TAA and use the old talking points to absolutely bash him and try to find any single way to turn an obvious transfer win (the most valuable right back in the world literally for free) into something controversial.
Be smarter. Don’t fall for it. Let the little dogs yap.
Joe Soriano covers West Ham for Green Street Hammers and writes about Real Madrid for The Real Champs. He has extensive experience covering world football since 2014. Joe is an editor for The Trivela Effect, where he covers the biggest clubs in European football. He has watched professional sports regularly since 2002 and can be found playing the same sports he covers with his friends.