Within days of the current worst-kept secret in football taking a huge step from rumour to reality, conversations turned to who should replace Trent Alexander-Arnold should he move to Real Madrid.
With the general consensus seeming to be that talented 21-year-old Conor Bradley isn’t quite ready, with his development stunted by missing nearly 50 matches over the past two seasons through injury, lists of new first-choice right-backs have been popping up as frequently as an Alexander-Arnold diagonal.
The difference, however, is that unlike one of those trademark passes, the accuracy of a lot of these suggestions has been off.
Such as the growing argument that 24-year-old Dutchman Jeremie Frimpong is the ideal player to fill Alexander-Arnold’s huge – and arguably irreplaceable – shoes.
To be clear, Frimpong is a quality player.
In the opinion of this writer, he has spent a lot of his career so far being undervalued – be it not being seen as good enough to make the grade at Man City, taking a while to earn the game time merited at Celtic or until recently being regularly overlooked at international level by Ronald Koeman.
It’s baffling that no one moved for him last summer when he was available for around £40 million. He is a highly talented player who is improving every season.
A right-side road-runner who is physically strong, technically impressive and highly efficient when it comes to attacking output.
It probably isn’t a stretch to say that the brilliant Xabi Alonso side which won Leverkusen’s first-ever league title in 2023/24 without losing a match – as well as lifting the German Cup – wouldn’t have done so without their two supreme wing-backs Frimpong and Alex Grimaldo.
He’s no longer a right-back
Here lies the core issue with Frimpong as Liverpool’s next right-back – he isn’t actually a right-back.
His first few senior years did indeed see him playing in the position, yet the arrival of Alonso in early 2022/23 saw that change with the Spaniard’s preference for a wing-back system.
Over the course of the last three campaigns in all competitions, at the time of writing the Amsterdammer has played 109 times as a right wing-back but only 19 as a right-back.
In the last two seasons, he’s appeared more times in Mohamed Salah’s position as an attacking wide forward than he has at full-back. Indeed if anything, the tactical growth of Frimpong has seen him emerge more into someone who could play in Salah’s role in the future.
It is where Frimpong actually started last for the Netherlands in the Nations League against Spain.
The 29 goals and 44 assists during his time in Germany have naturally drawn excited comparisons with Alexander-Arnold. However, the reality is that people are talking about a player who now fundamentally plays in a different position.
Fuelling the attack, exposing the defence
One might read this and think wait a minute, if Frimpong used to play as a right-back, has great attacking ability and if Arne Slot is meant to be so good at helping players excel in different roles, surely it could work at Liverpool?
And it is a fair argument in terms of Frimpong specifically, considering how he has yet to reach his peak years. However, signing him would be to the detriment of other areas of the side that also need strengthening, namely on the opposite flank at left-back.
It is reported that Liverpool are lining up a move for Bournemouth’s flying Milos Kerkez as the long-term replacement for Andy Robertson.
If anyone has seen the Hungarian play this season, they will know he is a very attacking left-back. A team in which he and Frimpong are playing would offer a side boundless attacking options but leave it completely exposed defensively.
Even more so if you then consider that the current central defensive pairing includes a gradually slowing Virgil van Dijk, who will be 34 next season if still at the club, and that the side currently does not have a natural defensive midfield shield, with Waturo Endo at best a back-up option who is likely to leave.
Even if Robertson were to remain the first-choice in 2025/26, having Frimpong at right-back would leave Liverpool far too open. One of the vital traits of the current title charge has been the defensive solidity, but this would be thrown out of the window.
And if Slot has already had to ask Alexander-Arnold to play deeper this season to accommodate this more measured tactical approach, it is hard to see it working with a player who likes to play even higher up the pitch.
Significant tactical changes would be required
One option would be to mirror what Koeman does with the Netherlands and Denzel Dumfries, the Inter Milan wing-back who, like Frimpong, plays extremely high essentially as a right-winger.
With the Oranje, the left-back is often Nathan Ake, who as a natural left centre-back is able to tuck in to make a back three whilst Dumfries pushes on.
Recently, with Ake injured, it was Ajax’s 19-year-old Jorrel Hato who took on the role – someone also linked with Liverpool as a potential Robertson successor.
This system additionally sees the orthodox right-sided attacker, such as Xavi Simons or Donyell Malen, playing more as an inside forward than a traditional winger getting chalk on their boots.
In other words, to make Frimpong work, Slot would have to not only alter what he requires from his left back but also ask Salah, probably the best player in the world this season and certainly one of the best in Liverpool’s history, to change the attacking positions he is taking up on the pitch.
To say this is unwise would be an understatement.
There is no doubt Frimpong is a serious talent. There are elements of his game that do replicate Alexander-Arnold’s.
Nevertheless, in a summer of such importance for the future development of Slot’s squad, signing him would be too much of a risk.
Finding and committing to a long-term Alexander-Arnold successor – whether by bringing someone in from the outside or trusting someone from within – is one of the biggest decisions the club has had to make in a decade.
They need to get it right. They’d be getting it wrong by signing Frimpong.
