Liverpool finally replace Trent Alexander-Arnold with brilliant playmaker

Liverpool may finally have a solution to replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The elephant in the room for a lot of this season has been the gaping void left by the Reds' former no.66 in their build-up and attacking phases.

Alexander-Arnold was so instrumental in creating chances and making Liverpool tick when in possession of the ball. He could come deep and pick it up and then instigate forward actions.

Or he could pop up in the final third himself and make key passes and crosses that would be considered 'risky' in order to break opposition lines.

On top of everything he was also very good at dictating the tempo of the game. Alexander-Arnold had this feeling for the rhythm and the cadence of how a match had to be played, and he'd fine-tune himself to meet those requirements.

A lot of the factors behind why Liverpool look so poor is because there is no Alexander-Arnold outlet anymore. There's no one player who can be the base point for Liverpool's structure and rhythm.

Or at least that is until West Ham United where Slot may have finally figured out how to replace Alexander-Arnold with a brilliant playmaker in Florian Wirtz.

Some have thought this was going to be the plan all along. There was no one of Trent's ilk in the right-back position so the way Liverpool had to inject more creativity into their play is through other means.

Wirtz is definitely the perfect option for this. He's a player who reads the game so well and he's very good at linking the play for his teammates, as well as creating chances.

We have been yet to really see this until the game on Sunday afternoon against West Ham. In that game, Wirtz becoming Alexander-Arnold's replacement finally came to fruition.

The German playmaker finished the game by being the most accurate passer on the pitch (95%). He played around 75 minutes and completed 42 out of 44 attempted passes.

Most of these passes came in crucial areas of the pitch and while Liverpool were in the build-up and offensive phase. In the final third, Wirtz became a crucial outlet. The player who set the tempo - just as Alexander-Arnold had done in years prior.

Everything good flow through Wirtz on Sunday. West Ham didn't have an answer for him. Breaking the deadlock against their resolute defence was also down to Wirtz's genius.

His clever defence-splitting pass to find Cody Gakpo caught West Ham off-guard and created the room for the Dutchman to square it to Alexander Isak.

In the past those passes would have been made by Alexander-Arnold. Now the responsibility is on Wirtz, and he finally showed that he can live up to the hype and replace the club's former no.66.

There is life after Trent. At last.

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