Alexander-Arnold tops form dip ranking of Liverpool players since quadruple bid

Six months ago Liverpool were going for the quadruple. They were worse, but only slightly worse, than Manchester City. The gap between those two teams is now both literally and figuratively massive. Liverpool players deemed to be among the best in the world in their positions are now figures of fun for those who enjoy a good trough after a peak.

A lot of them have fallen significantly this season and we thought it would be fun – for all but Liverpool fans perhaps – to rank them by just how much their form has dipped, from least to most.

Players must have started at least two games this season to qualify.

16) Roberto Firmino
Rumours of an exit in the summer weren’t exactly rife – but they were around – and thank goodness he stayed. The Brazilian tops the goalscoring and assists charts with eight and four respectively. He’s improved if anything.

15) Luis Diaz
The Colombian made an immediate impact when he arrived in January and he’s been about as good this season. He’s endured far less ‘heavy metal football’ than the rest of his teammates so his superior energy levels are to be expected. He may be entirely carrying Liverpool come January, when he returns from injury and the rest of the squad return battered and bruised from the World Cup.

14) Kostas Tsimikas
He’s got two Premier League assists – equalling his tally of last season – in 280 minutes of action. Goal concessions don’t tend to emanate from his side of the pitch.

13) Harvey Elliott
He’s already played more this season than last and has generally looked more of a threat in that right pocket of midfield than Salah out wide, which is quite extraordinary. It’s not easy playing well in a struggling team no matter your age. At 19 it’s very impressive.

12) Diogo Jota
Started his first Premier League game of the season in the 3-2 defeat to Arsenal, provided a lovely assist for Firmino’s goal and looked pretty decent throughout. Could well be a key source of Liverpool goals in the coming weeks.

11) Alisson
He was the third best goalkeeper in the Premier League according to save percentage last season on 75.3% and now sits ninth on 66.7%.

READ MORE: One worrying stat for every Liverpool regular in the Premier League this season

10) Andrew Robertson
As is the case when they’re both doing well, the focus has very much been on Robertson’s full-back comrade this season. That’s probably because Trent Alexander-Arnold is better when they’re good and worse when they’re bad, but the Scotsman has hardly been Flying.

9) Thiago Alcantara
When Liverpool have got the ball, Thiago is a pleasure; when they don’t, he’s a liability. That was fine before now, when the press was working and he had two midfield pals alongside him, but as was the case against Arsenal on Sunday, faced with energy and speed he looks lethargic and slow next to the similarly lethargic and slow Jordan Henderson.

8) Joe Gomez
He’s already played more Premier League minutes this season than he did last, and most of those minutes have looked very uncomfortable. But he proved on Wednesday night, as he has before, that Liverpool do have a more than serviceable alternative to Alexander-Arnold at right-back.

7) Joel Matip
Liverpool are yet to win a Premier League game Matip has featured in this season and they’ve conceded eight goals in the three he’s started. That high line will be the death of him.

6) James Milner
Signed a one-year extension in the summer, but the Liverpool fans, and quite possibly the man himself, may well have wished he hadn’t. He looks as though he’s playing Masters football in the Premier League.

5) Mohamed Salah
His stunning six-minute hat-trick on Wednesday has put rather a large coat of gloss on an otherwise distinctly average start to the season.

Those defending Salah’s performances this term will claim he’s been good in a different way. They will point to the fact that only Kevin De Bruyne has made more key passes, but then that’s De Bruyne’s job. No-one could claim the plan was for Salah to turn from the best goalscoring wide forward in the Premier League to a creator of lesser repute.

Despite his outstanding consistency for Liverpool in the last five seasons, if the last couple of months has proven anything it’s that Salah remains a confidence player. And having found his shooting boots on Wednesday, he would be wise to wear them to bed and in the shower so as not to lose them before Manchester City on Sunday.

4) Fabinho
Underappreciated at the top and bottom of his game. He wasn’t the reason Liverpool were so good, despite being critical to their success, and now isn’t the reason they’re this bad, despite being so poor in the 3-3 draw with Brighton that Jurgen Klopp ripped up one of the most successful blueprints in Premier League history to get him out of the team.

3) Virgil van Dijk
No player dared run at Van Dijk. It was pointless. He was stronger, quicker, smarter, better looking: superior in every way. Now it’s as though he’s a retired wrestler who spends his days standing in a battered ring while wannabees line up to take him on. And each young pretender has a better chance than the last to beat the sh*t out of him, as they learn his weaknesses.

2) Jordan Henderson
People were loath to praise him until his outstanding and consistent performances for such a long time gave those people no other recourse. He wasn’t just a tryhard but also a very talented footballer. The U-turn back to criticism has been far quicker, and not without grounds. Henderson has always looked ‘leggy’ – he’s a leggy man – but he now looks leggy in the sense that only seems to apply to footballers, meaning slow and a bit sh*t.

1) Trent Alexander-Arnold
Alexander-Arnold says he doesn’t like to think of himself as a full-back as he doesn’t like to “play with shackles on”. This isn’t a Rainbow Rhythms hippie free-for-all Trent, it’s a football team, which needs full-backs to defend as well as attack, and, to some extent, be shackled.

Currently, he’s doing the thing he’s good at nowhere near as well as he has done, while just not really bothering with the thing he’s bad at, which has been put under the microscope for the first time in his career.