Can Trent Alexander-Arnold Be a Midfielder?
The question refuses to die.
Can Trent Alexander-Arnold really be a midfielder?
Gareth Southgate tried to answer it at Euro 2024, pushed him into the middle for England, then quietly shelved the idea after two group games. Jurgen Klopp built an entire Liverpool system on his ability to drift inside and dictate play, but always from a right-back starting position.
Now it is Jose Mourinho’s turn to experiment.
On Tuesday night, under Champions League lights, the Real Madrid coach dropped Alexander-Arnold into midfield for the 2-1 win over Inter Milan. Not as a late tweak, not as an in-game adjustment. From the start.
Mourinho’s reluctant midfielder
The context matters. Mourinho’s options were stripped bare: Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Guler and Bernardo Silva were all suspended. Needs must. Alexander-Arnold was pushed in alongside Federico Valverde, a solution born more of necessity than grand redesign.
Afterwards, Mourinho made his stance clear.
“He has played midfield with England and Liverpool... but he is not a midfielder,” he said, even as he praised the performance. The Portuguese stressed how well Alexander-Arnold had “interpreted what he needed to” tactically, and bracketed him with Valverde as having “worked very well at this level”.
So yes, appreciation. But no promise this will be his new home.
The numbers back up the idea of a mixed night. Alexander-Arnold created two chances and hit more crosses than any other Real player. He saw a lot of the ball. Yet he failed to win a tackle, and his passing accuracy dipped to 83.3%, a notch below the control he usually exerts from right-back.
When Inter pulled one back on 77 minutes, Mourinho turned to his bench. Alexander-Arnold’s number went up. The reaction inside the Bernabeu was a chorus of whistles, though it felt more like a verdict on the team’s stuttering display than on one Englishman trying to learn a new role on the fly.
A battle on two fronts
This was the first competitive game in which Alexander-Arnold and fellow right-back Denzel Dumfries both started. Mourinho had tested the pairing once before, in pre-season against Fiorentina, with Alexander-Arnold at right-back and Dumfries pushed further forward on the same flank.
That trial hinted at the current reality. Mourinho still has no fixed answer at right-back. Last season, Alexander-Arnold had to scrap for minutes with Dani Carvajal. This season, the fight is with Dumfries. The shirt is there to be claimed, but it is not his yet.
Even so, there is respect. BBC Sport understands Mourinho has been impressed by Alexander-Arnold’s performances, his professionalism and the flexibility he offers. The coach sees him as a different breed of full-back, someone who can slide into central pockets and help build attacks from areas usually patrolled by midfielders.
The strengths remain familiar: passing range, whipped crosses, disguised through balls, set-piece quality. Those weapons travel with him, whatever zone he occupies.
England’s unfinished experiment
The debate over his best position has followed Alexander-Arnold for years, but it burned hottest with England.
In June 2023, Southgate handed him the number 10 shirt for a Euro qualifier in Malta. England won 4-0, Alexander-Arnold scored from midfield and spoke afterwards about how natural it felt.
“I haven't played it too much, but it feels comfortable,” he told Channel 4. “It feels natural, I will say that. It's somewhere I can see myself playing.”
Southgate kept flirting with the idea for the next 12 months, nudging him into central roles, then retreating. The turning point came at Euro 2024, in an underwhelming 1-1 draw with Denmark. Alexander-Arnold started in midfield, struggled to impose himself and was withdrawn before the hour. The plan was quietly binned.
Mourinho’s comments after the Inter game echoed some of those concerns.
He pointed to the balls Alexander-Arnold lost in tight areas, stressing that operating in the middle is “not the same” as playing from right-back. The physical demands differ, the intensity spikes, the spaces close faster.
“The intensity of physical work is quite difficult. He has a different engine,” Mourinho said. “He has given 100%. He left the pitch with nothing left to give.”
What comes next?
So where does that leave him?
On one hand, Alexander-Arnold keeps being dragged into midfield by managers who see his vision and technique and want them closer to the heart of the game. On the other, the men who know him best – Southgate, Klopp in his own way, now Mourinho – keep circling back to the same conclusion: his gifts are most reliably devastating when he starts from the right.
Real Madrid’s injury and suspension list forced Mourinho to revisit the argument. The performance, brave but imperfect, did nothing to settle it.
The battle for the right-back slot with Dumfries will define his short-term future in Madrid. The larger question – whether he can ever truly reinvent himself as a central midfielder at the highest level – lingers in the background.
For now, he remains what he has long been: a full-back who thinks like a playmaker, a player caught between roles, and a tactical puzzle no elite coach can quite resist trying to solve.
