On to the first player that Liverpool have been reliably linked with, Belgian international Maxim De Cuyper is a left back by trade but can play at right back also. Hungarian football journalist Bence Bocsak has recently reported on Liverpool’s interest in the Club Brugge full-back and it’s quite easy to see why. Based on this comparison chart, De Cuyper is remarkably similar to Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Firstly, De Cuyper produces basically the same number of key passes, deliveries into the penalty area, shots created for teammates in open play, and percentage of crosses completed per 90 minutes this season. De Cuyper also completes marginally more dribbles and gets dispossessed less than Trent De Cuyper also has a 5% better pass completion percentage compared to Alexander-Arnold while his 58% dribblers tackled percentage is quite a bit better than Trent’s 45%.

That’s not to say that the Belgian is similar to the Liverpool maestro at everything, though. Trent has a better progressive carry distance and commits fewer fouls, however the difference in those aspects is fairly negligible. Perhaps the biggest differences between the two is that Trent completes more tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes than De Cuyper when adjusted for possession. We will speak more on De Cuyper’s defensive ability in a minute. Alexander-Arnold also contributes to many more goals than De Cuyper does.

Now to address the elephant in the room. Why would Liverpool replace a right back with a left back? Well for starters, as outlined previously De Cuyper can play right back. According to Transfermarkt he’s played there only 20 times though, so he would obviously not have the experience playing on the right side of defence that others on this list would.

Liverpool however are also looking to add a left back this summer. Perhaps the view from the club will be to kill two birds with one stone and they may decide to sign a versatile full-back who can play on either side. There are some more premium options in that respect than De Cuyper. Andrea Cambiaso in particular should feature high on that list. We have decided not to include him here because there have been no credible links to Liverpool and the suspicion is that he would only leave Juventus to play under Pep Guardiola.

There are also concerns about De Cuyper’s defensive ability. The Athletic’s Alex Barker recently spoke about how De Cuyper has a severe deficiency in that he’s far too aggressive both in the press and in the tackle, and that he’s far too easily beaten.

If De Cuyper is struggling defensively at all in the Belgian Pro League, it would likely present far too great a risk for a Liverpool team hoping to compete on all fronts next season. Nonetheless, De Cuyper represents an opportunity for Liverpool to replace Trent in the aggregate rather than replacing him directly, and he is expected to cost less than £25 million.