Alexander-Arnold’s return with Real reminds Liverpool of what they are missing
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LIVERPOOL: Trent Alexander-Arnold returns to Liverpool on Tuesday with both player and his boyhood club struggling to adapt after his emotional departure for Real Madrid.
Just metres from where the England international will enter Anfield, there still stands a giant mural of him decked in red alongside the quote: “I’m just a normal lad from Liverpool whose dream has just come true.”
Alexander-Arnold’s journey from supporter to two-time Premier League winner and Champions League glory was a fairytale.
But for much of the Liverpool support, his exit after running down his contract, meaning the Premier League champions received only a nominal fee, soured his legacy.
Alexander-Arnold was even booed at times in the final few months of his Liverpool career, despite his contribution to the club’s only two league titles since 1990.
On finally announcing his departure in May, the defender, now 27, said it was “easily the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life”.
A frosty reception is almost guaranteed on Tuesday should he feature for the first time as a visiting player at his former home.
Alexander-Arnold said he had “mixed emotions” over his return and that he would not celebrate if he scored.
The defender said it was up to the fans how they react, adding that he will “always love the club”.
“No matter what, my feelings won’t change towards Liverpool,” he told Amazon Prime. “I’ve got memories there that will last me a lifetime and, no matter how I’m received, that won’t change.”
The heightened emotions around the exit of the player Liverpool fans used to serenade as the “Scouser in our team” took the focus away from how much of a loss Alexander-Arnold would be on the field.
He was just one cog in a major summer overhaul of Arne Slot’s squad, but is arguably the most missed of the band of players to leave in the transfer window.
Slot has regularly been forced to drop his best-performing midfielder this season, Dominik Szoboszlai, back to right-back as neither Conor Bradley nor Jeremie Frimpong have been able to fill the void left by Alexander-Arnold.
Although much criticised for his one-on-one defending, Alexander-Arnold was so sought after because of what he brought going forward.
He departed as the defender with the most assists in Premier League history thanks both to his exquisite range of passing and precise set-piece delivery.
Mohamed Salah in particular has struggled to adjust without the service of his partner down the Liverpool right for the past eight seasons.
A run of six defeats in eight games has highlighted just how much Alexander-Arnold is being missed, but despite having struggling to adapt to life at Real and having not featured since a hamstring injury in September, he said no one at Real would underestimate the Premier League champions.
“It will be a very difficult game, the reception and atmosphere will contribute to that, but more so the football for me,” he said. “Although they haven’t had the results of late, they’re still a top footballing team, and nobody here thinks it’s going to be an easy game.”
Liverpool comfortably defeated Real in the group stage of last season’s Champions League but their win over Aston Villa on Saturday was ther first in the Premier League for more than a month.
Xabi Alonso ‘s Real, meanwhile, are on a high, transformed from last season and improving weekly under the manager having won 13 of their 14 matches so far.
The lie fifth in the 36-team Champions League table, five places above Liverpool going into Tuesday’s clash.
PSG TAKE ON BAYERN JUGGERNAUT
Tuesday’s second blockbuster is a top-of-the-table clash between reigning champions Paris St Germain and second-placed Bayern Munich.
PSG midfielder Vitinha said on Monday that the home clash with undefeated Bayern will be a meeting between “the two best teams in Europe”.
PSG come into the sternest test yet of their European title defence top of Ligue 1 and with three wins from three so far in the Champions League league phase.
But Bayern, have started their season with a European record 15 wins in 15 outings, and sit second behind only PSG in the standings in the continent’s elite club competition.
But as for who is mightiest between the two heavyweights, Vitinha said Tuesday’s match will tell.
“The answer will be given tomorrow. We have to talk on the pitch,” he told reporters at the pre-match press conference. “When you’re a player, you want to play in this type of match because everyone wants to see it, and people will say, ‘this team is better because they won’.”
PSG, Bayern and Real are among five teams with three straight wins so far, the others being Arsenal and Inter Milan.
Among other action elsewhere on Tuesday, Luciano Spalletti begins his Champions League salvage operation with Juventus as the Italians host 11th-placed Sporting Lisbon in search of a first win in Europe this season.
Former Italy coach Spalletti got off to a winning start with his new team on Saturday with a 2-1 Serie A success at Cremonese and has a near blank slate to work with as Juve have just two points from their first three Champions League matches and sit 25th, inside the elimination zone.
Tuesday’s fixtures (all times GMT): Slavia Prague v Arsenal (1745), Napoli v Eintracht Frankfurt (1745) Atletico de Madrid v Union St-Gilloise (2000), Bodo/ Glimt v Monaco (2000), Juventus v Sporting CP (2000), Liverpool v Real Madrid (2000), Olympiakos Piraeus v PSV (2000), Paris St Germain v Bayern Munich (2000), Tottenham Hotspur v FC Copenhagen (2000).
Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2025
