LIVERPOOL'S full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson have understandably received a lot of acclaim this season due to their key roles to the Anfield side’s outstanding 2018/19 so far.
But both could well be overshadowed in Liverpool’s upcoming Champions League semi-finals against Barcelona by surely still the world’s best attacking full-back in the blaugrana outfit’s Jordi Alba.
Alba is producing another superb season as Barca are closing in on another treble, having confirmed the 2018/19 La Liga title last weekend, and also reached the Copa del Rey final against Valencia.
| GOAAAL! |
Absolutely brilliant football! A typical Barcelona goal
Fantastic play from Lionel Messi and what a strike from Jordi Alba! pic.twitter.com/Bs51ZlpcHw
— Eleven Sports (@ElevenSports_UK) April 20, 2019
The 30-year-old is now up to 16 assists in all competitions this season, with his 10 goals created in La Liga beating the numbers of any other defender. And his tally of four in the Champions League only bettered by Paris Saint Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Manchester City’s Leroy Sane [both have five but are already out of the competition].
11 assists from Robertson and nine from Alexander-Arnold have helped Liverpool to challenge so long for the Premier League title, with the pace and incision they offer in wide areas being key to Jurgen Klopp’s approach. Although both have also been excellent during Liverpool’s return to the UCL semi-finals, they are stuck on two UCL assists each – the joint best tally among the Anfield squad.
Alba managed three assists in just one game, against Tottenham at Wembley in October. While he has also has three club goals this season, with the Liverpool pair having just one between them.
It is perhaps unfair to directly compare Liverpool’s two much younger and less experienced full-backs with Alba, a winner of 16 career trophies including the 2015 Champions League, five La Liga titles and Euro 2012 with Spain [when he scored in the final against Italy].
The importance of Liverpool’s full-backs is sure to have been noticed at the Camp Nou ahead of the semi-finals though, and Alba will have no doubt been made aware of the importance of his personal battle with Alexander-Arnold down their flank.
Kings of the assist
Andrew Robertson
️ 13 assistsTrent Alexander-Arnold
️ 11 assistsThe Liverpool full backs are changing the game pic.twitter.com/b0OTUtevH0
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 29, 2019
It will be the first time that the pair meet on the pitch, with Alba having not taken part in Spain’s two Nations League meetings with England back in the autumn, when his former Barca coach Luis Enrique had bafflingly left him out of his first squads as La Roja manager.
That apparent snub seemed to provide extra motivation through the autumn for Alba, and it may or may not have been coincidence that he responded to a first ever dropping from the senior international squad by hitting a goal and two assists against Huesca in La Liga back in September.
The two men always claimed in public that there was nothing personal between them, but it is true that they are both prickly characters with a tendency to rub people up the wrong way. Whatever the reality of the situation Alba kept his level extremely high through the season, and Luis Enrique brought him back for March’s 2-1 Euro 2020 qualifier victory against Norway, where he took just 10 minutes to lay on the opening goal for his eighth career senior international assist.
Alba has also reacted over time to what he has seen as doubts about his long-term future among the Camp Nou hierarchy and some blaugrana pundits, and there was some friction before he signed a new long-term club contract in early March.
The idea that anybody at Barca could seriously have been thinking of replacing him seems pretty crazy. Especially considering how – most worryingly for Liverpool ahead of their UCL semis – blaugrana talisman Lionel Messi looks so often for Alba in one of the team's signature attacking moves.
10 – Jordi Alba has been involved in more goals than any other defender in @LaLigaEN this season (two goals and eight assists). Ray. pic.twitter.com/1wwrFgB0bX
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) April 20, 2019
The Xavi Hernandez-Dani Alves-Messi combination which brought Barca so much success in the past has been replaced recently by a simpler Messi-Alba link-up. The Argentine cuts in from the right, holds the ball and then switches the play to send the full-back clear on the other wing, before sprinting into the box at just the right moment to convert a cut-back.
It sounds simple, but the link-up is done with such pace and technical perfection that opponents have not worked out how to stop it. Even Alba himself professes to not really know how they make it happen so often – “Messi gives me passes that others don't even see, including me,” he joked in a rare light hearted moment with the local press recently.
A positive for Liverpool, perhaps, is that the combination last provided a Barca goal back in January. But Alba remains in decent form – playing the final pass for Luis Suarez’s opener in last month’s key top of La Liga win over Atletico Madrid, and hitting a rare right-footed goal just last week against Real Sociedad.
Alba’s super-competitive nature, and Messi’s focus on the Champions League above all this season, mean that Alexander-Arnold in particular faces the biggest challenge yet of his career in Wednesday's semi-final first leg at the Camp Nou. While on the other side Robertson is also likely to have his hands full with either Nelson Semedo or Sergi Roberto.
If Liverpool can even gain parity in the full-back positions it would be a positive for Klopp’s side. But Alba's experience, ability and understanding with Messi are big reasons many around the Camp Nou see Barca as favourites to progress to the final.
