Trent Alexander-Arnold’s passing against Tottenham, Morgan Rogers’ dribbling and Leicester’s goalkeepers | Football News happymamay

There were some impressive performances for Liverpool in their 6-3 win over Tottenham on Sunday, but it was a brilliant cross from Trent Alexander-Arnold to Luis Diaz that set Arne Slott’s Premier League leaders on their way to that emphatic result.

“The cross is something else,” Gary Neville said in a shared comment. Sky Sports. “It’s precision. There are very few players in the history of the Premier League who can make a sixpenny like that, with that level of precision, pace and whiplash. He’s absolutely perfect.”

Alexander-Arnold’s cross was a feature of the match, as his four successful balls from open play were the most he had ever made in a Premier League match. In fact, it’s been two-and-a-half years since he last did so – also against Tottenham, as it happened.

But it is his wider passing range that makes Alexander-Arnold a rare talent. Much of the control that Slott attempted to provide has been achieved at Liverpool, but the right-back remains a stranger, often searching for those riskier but more useful passes.

He has made more advanced passes than any player in the Premier League this season – 205 of them – and his average passing distance is 19.1 metres, longer than any other Liverpool player. His first idea is how to hurt the opposition.

This is evident from the number of passes he makes to break the back line. Alexander-Arnold is averaging 11.5 passes per 90 minutes this season, second only to Kevin De Bruyne. But the Liverpool man manages it from deeper areas.

Against Tottenham, seven of his passes went past six or more opponents. It’s been more than a year since he’s done that in a Premier League game, but it shows he can break into a team. There is certainly no more exciting ball-passer in the country.

Rogers dribble against Man City

“He excelled last season and this season. I think he is a truly top-class player. England have another exceptional player.” That was Pep Guardiola’s verdict after he was clipped by Morgan Rogers in Manchester City’s 2-1 loss to Aston Villa on Saturday.

It was perhaps the most riveting performance this reporter has seen all season, as he bullied the defending champions with his power, eluded them with his speed and punished them with his skill. He was fantastic against his old club.

He set up John Doran’s opening goal and then scored the second himself. He has five goals and three assists in the Premier League now this season, but that only hints at his role under Unai Emery.

Rogers, 22, ranks among the top 10 players in the Premier League in terms of dribbles and through passes, but what is particularly interesting is how valuable he is to Emery against what is arguably the toughest opponent.

He completed five dribbles against City, having also done the same against Arsenal. Rogers has not done this more than twice in any of his matches this season against teams other than the top two teams from last season. Villa uses him to get up the pitch in these matches.

“We needed to communicate,” Emery explained afterwards. “He was doing a really great job in that situation. One of the qualities he showed was his leadership. He made a great drive, broke the lines and we got past him. He scored a great goal.”

There have been some suggestions that Rogers has looked tired at times this season and that is understandable. It was the first time in a month that he played on the weekend as he did not feature for Villa in a midweek match as well.

Interestingly, four of Rogers’ five goals in the Premier League this season have come in games in which he had not played in the previous midweek. When he’s full of energy, there’s simply no stopping him – as Guardiola and Manchester City have discovered.

“Leicester’s paradoxical goalkeepers.”

If Mads Hermansen’s importance to Leicester City was still in doubt, the goalkeeper’s absence against Wolves confirmed it, with Danny Ward being criticized by the home fans as the Foxes suffered a 3-0 defeat at the King Power Stadium.

According to Opta, none of the three goals were attributed to him as fouls – James Justin was clearly responsible for the second – but it was tempting to think that the impressive Hermansen could have turned away each of Wolves’ goals.

The booing of Ward was inappropriate but reflects fan frustration and the statistics back up the eye test. In Hermansen, Leicester have the goalkeeper who has prevented the most goals of anyone in the Premier League so far this season – 6.44 in total.

This is partly because he faced the second-most shots of any goalkeeper in the competition, which is in itself an indicator of just how dire Leicester City’s situation is. With almost everyone else, they would almost certainly be sitting in the relegation zone already.

If Hermansen is out for any length of time, the fear is that this is where they will end up. Leicester has been here before. The position was an issue in the 2022/23 relegation season, with both Ward and Daniel Iversen struggling during that campaign.

Ward’s record that season highlights the inconsistency. While Hermansen is helping to prevent 0.42 goals per 90 minutes this season, Ward ranks last among Premier League goalkeepers over the past three years – at a cost of 0.28 goals per 90 minutes.

On average, this suggests that the difference between the two could be as much as two goals in every three matches. No wonder Leicester will eagerly await his return. The defeat to Wolves was a somewhat unwelcome taste of how things would go without him.