16 April 2024 , 08:02
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Trent Alexander-Arnold admits the new Liverpool manager will be met with a tough challenge during what he thinks will be a "weird" pre-season.
The Reds are on the hunt for a new boss with Jurgen Klopp departing in the summer after almost nine years in the role, with Sporting Lisbon manager Ruben Amorim the heavy favourite to replace the Premier League and Champions League winner.
For Liverpool vice-captain Alexander-Arnold and every other player in the first-team squad bar Joe Gomez, who was signed by Brendan Rodgers, Klopp is the only manager they have known at the club, and so adjusting to hearing a new voice on the training ground is likely to be tough.
Speaking to Gary Neville on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet, Alexander-Arnold says he expects the summer to be a strange time, but he's looking forward to the new challenge in his career.
“I’d probably say I’m sat on the fence with regards to my feelings on a new manager coming in," he said. "It’ll be a completely different situation and it’s going to be weird to then turn up to pre-season, having to adopt a new playing style.
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"Whereas now, without anything getting said to me, I know all the manager wants me to play, and I turn up to pre-season, I know to jump there, I’m to press there, but for this summer, my next pre-season will have a completely different message.
Alexander-Arnold has formed a tight bond with Klopp (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)“It’s going to be strange, but I think I like the idea of a new challenge for the team, the players and the club.”
The 25-year-old broke into the team as a teenager under the German boss, and he is in no doubt about how important he's been for his career.
“Jurgen Klopp has been nothing but incredible," he continued. "I owe everything to him as a player. I was thinking about this recently and the only thing you can ask for as a young player is an opportunity and what you can hope at 18/19, is that you’ve got a manager that’s willing to give you a chance, and I was fortunate enough to have that.
Klopp put his trust in Alexander-Arnold as a teenager (AFP/Getty Images)"Not only that, he put his arm round me and guided me through it, through the ups and downs, winning and losing games, and taking it game by game, because your first bad game you think you’re never going to kick a ball again, but he gives you that reassurance.”
Despite the change in the dugout though, Alexander-Arnold is sure that the dynamic around the club won't change following Klopp's exit.
He said: “The new manager is going to come in and change the way we play, and it’ll be a different culture and different messages, but as long as the mentality to win, the eagerness to win and the internal pressure within ourselves and the demand to win things and be in a title race next season, no matter who the manager is, then we’ll be fine.
“That’s what we expect from ourselves, of course the results might not go our way, but if the mentality is there, and the dressing room has the desire that we’re going to win, we’re trying to win things as well.”
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