In general parlance, the word ‘skill’ is an open-ended concept but in football vocabulary, ‘skill’ means something much more specific. It is about controlling the ball, or trickery, or composure in tight spots. It never really refers to the basic premise of football, which is actually kicking the ball accurately. That’s the most valuable skill of all. And in that sense, the Premier League may be losing its two most skilful players.
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Trent Alexander-Arnold will leave Liverpool for Real Madrid, while Kevin De Bruyne’s decade-long spell at Manchester City is nearly up, with a move abroad looking likely. Without these two, English football lacks players who can match their level of delivery into the box.
Statistically, you can measure that skill in terms of assist numbers. Over the last decade, De Bruyne has recorded the most Premier League assists, and Alexander-Arnold is in fourth (particularly impressive considering he’s a full-back and didn’t become a regular until 2018-19). Mohamed Salah and Son Heung-min separate them. But they’re primarily known for their goals, and their assists generally are simpler than the balls De Bruyne and Alexander-Arnold play. Salah’s creativity shouldn’t be underestimated, but those two aren’t better at — for want of a better expression — adding value with their passes. De Bruyne and Alexander-Arnold, more so than anyone else in the league, can transfer the ball from innocuous situations to prime goalscoring positions out of absolutely nothing.
Part of this is pure technical quality, but there are limits to that. James Ward-Prowse is a superb set-piece taker, and can generate whip and curl as effectively as anyone. But you don’t think of him as a genuinely creative player in open play. De Bruyne and Alexander-Arnold have the ability to play pinpoint crosses, but also the vision to play a variety of spectacular passes — switches to the opposite flank, or curled balls in behind, or cutbacks having reached the byline. Notably, considering they have the best two right feet in the Premier League, both are also very adept with their left.
De Bruyne has always been comfortable using his ‘weaker’ left foot (PAUL ELLIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Similarly, while David Beckham is probably still regarded as the best crosser the Premier League has seen, he wasn’t an overwhelmingly inventive player. When in central positions he was competent rather than commanding, and he was happiest out wide when the right ball was an obvious one.
Beckham was suited to playing in an era where getting the ball wide and crossing towards two strikers was the order of the day. In a modern system, he wouldn’t have the speed to play as a proper right-winger — would he be a more central player like De Bruyne, or a right-back like Alexander-Arnold?
Would David Beckham have operated a central midfielder or a right back in contemporary football? (Gary M Prior /Allsport)
In their own way, De Bruyne and Alexander-Arnold have been at the forefront of tactical innovation. De Bruyne thrived as a No 10 for Wolfsburg, and in his first season at City under Manuel Pellegrini was used either in that role, or out wide. When Pep Guardiola deployed him in midfield three, with David Silva in the same role to the left, it felt extremely daring. De Bruyne was the one who christened the term ‘the free eight’.
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Guardiola’s system, generally based around five players occupying five attacking channels, meant De Bruyne thrived in a role that was always in-between everyone else: between the opposition horizontal lines, but also between the opposition’s vertical lines, in the channel.
There was always confusion about who should pick him up, and City mastered the tactic of getting their right-winger — often Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva — to stay wide despite being left-footed, and slipping the ball in behind for De Bruyne’s run into the channel. Here’s an example from last season in the crucial win at Tottenham, with Erling Haaland the goalscorer.
It’s difficult to think of another player who has mastered that zone to this extent.
Alexander-Arnold, meanwhile, was a central midfielder converted into a right-back, who was constantly the subject of a debate about whether he should play in midfield. England manager Gareth Southgate used him there once, Jurgen Klopp said it was daft, but later Klopp borrowed the Guardiola tactic of pushing his full-back into the centre of midfield.
Whereas Guardiola’s approach was largely a cautious one, about preventing counter-attacks, Alexander-Arnold moved into that role to open up his passing range, so he could conduct play and offer greater variety of balls downfield. Some scoff at the idea Alexander-Arnold has revolutionised the right-back role — there have always been attack-minded right-backs, they say. But have any other right-backs been their side’s chief creative threat? Their best passer? Have any right-backs drifted infield and regularly played passes like this, that feel more fitting of Andrea Pirlo than Cafu?
Like with De Bruyne, Alexander-Arnold’s skill set required an unusual — if not unique — role. Here’s a graphic showing the positions of their assists since 2018-19, the season Alexander-Arnold became a Liverpool regular. It shows how both thrive in that inside-right channel.
While crossing has long been a fundamental part of football, there was a a period around a decade ago when the concept was unfashionable at the highest level. The rise of Spanish-style tiki-taka encouraged everyone to play through the centre, with wide players drifting inside. Crossing was briefly considered to be too simple: just hoofing the ball into the mixer and hoping for the best.
The player who recorded the most assists from crosses in the season before De Bruyne signed for Manchester City, 2014-15, was Chris Brunt. He played for a West Bromwich Albion side managed by the league’s most old-school manager, Tony Pulis. Crossing was considered outdated.
Alexander-Arnold has often been Liverpool’s chief creator (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Alexander-Arnold and De Bruyne have, in a sense, repopularised crossing in the Premier League — even during long periods when their sides played without a classic No 9. When unable to rely on a towering central striker, their game has been about spotting runners and providing deliveries with pinpoint accuracy, which dip or curl at the optimum time. They cross with both power and accuracy. They can play through balls, too. They have provided the league with an extra dimension.
It is anatomically illogical to say this, but also entirely reasonable in football: both have a right foot of the quality we tend to associate with a left foot. And there’s no higher praise than that.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
