Trent Alexander-Arnold can unleash his Liverpool ‘peak’ in the coming weeks, following Steven Gerrard’s path – with help from England manager Gareth Southgate.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, the vice captain for Liverpool, has had a rather low-key start to the year.

He had to be benched for another Premier League game as he worked his way back to full health after missing two games due to a muscle ailment last month.

Two of the five games he has been able to start in the Premier League have involved Liverpool being reduced to 10 men, which has limited his offensive freedom.

One of the things that Reds fans were most excited about heading into 2023/24 was seeing a full year of Alexander-Arnold in his new hybrid role, particularly with a pre-season of refinement under his belt.

He’d produced a spectacular run of form at the back of the end campaign after Jürgen Klopp’s tweak, providing seven assists in the final 10 matches compared to just two in the previous 27.

The manager was able to transform what was set to be Alexander-Arnold’s poorest season to date into a tantalizing glimpse of things to come.

But so far, partly for the reasons outlined above, we’ve only really seen one eye-catching display from the Englishman, and that came in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa just before the international break.

Alexander-Arnold notched his one and only assist of the campaign so far that day, and created five chances overall in a showreel performance.

We should begin to see that player more regularly as the Premier League resumes and both he and Liverpool can begin to generate some rhythm.

From the Reds’ perspective, Gareth Southgate found the perfect balance with Alexander-Arnold during the international break, allowing him to play a sharpness-boosting 90 minutes against Australia before handing him a rest against Italy.

Just before that camp, Alexander-Arnold turned 25, and speaking to Channel 4, he said he’d reached a turning point in his career. No longer a young talent, he feels he should now be entering his prime.

“I’ve realized, for me, I’m not a young player anymore,” he said. “[I’m] getting into hopefully the peak years of my career and how can I get the best out of that? And I’m the one that’s responsible for it, I’m the one that can make that happen.”

The data supports Alexander-Arnold’s point. Going by minutes played, an indicator of a player’s standing within the squad and their physical condition, The Athletic found that 25 is the peak age for a full-back, although their peak ‘window’ typically lasts until around 29.

This, of course, isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, and some would counter that Alexander-Arnold isn’t a full-back in the traditional sense, spending plenty of time in central midfield too according to Klopp’s instructions.

But 25 also happens to be the peak age for a player in that position, with the window lasting slightly longer this time (until 30). We saw this, to a degree, with another local Liverpool icon in Steven Gerrard.

Tactical changes and Liverpool’s inconsistency from one season to a next played a part in the fluctuation of his numbers, but three of the four seasons where he reached double figures for goals came between the ages of 25 and 28, and four of his top six seasons for combined goals and assists output came between 25 and 29.

There is, then, reason to be confident that Alexander-Arnold should be able to improve further.

This is already a player who’s made a FIFPro World XI (in 2020) and three PFA Teams of the Year, but he’s not yet the finished article.

Put simply, rival Premier League teams should be scared of what Liverpool’s best playmaker can go on to produce. The Academy talent might just be entering his Gerrard era.