Q&ATrent Alexander-Arnold interview: A 'new' Liverpool, Man Utd trip and defensive principles

The Reds have claimed six points from a possible six in their start to the 2024-25 Premier League campaign, along with back-to-back clean sheets.

The performances in the wins against Ipswich Town and Brentford were encouraging, too, with Alexander-Arnold and his teammates looking to build on those displays when they head to Old Trafford in the 4pm BST kick-off.

Liverpoolfc.com caught up with the vice-captain at the AXA Training Centre to preview the much-anticipated clash…

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Trent, does it feel like you're heading to Man United in a really good moment?

I think we're full of confidence. Obviously big changes happened for us in the summer and then a few of us were late back in. But we're getting to grips with the new style, the new way the manager wants us to play and transitioning into a new Liverpool really. I think it's going well so far. There's a lot we can still improve on, and I'm sure the manager thinks the same and us players equally so. For us, it's about carrying momentum. We have self-belief, we're confident in ourselves and the way that we play. Two really good games and two wins, so we need to keep that going.

It really does look like the confidence is flowing through the team. Have you been surprised by some of the stuff you're playing so early into the season?

Not particularly because it's what we do in training every single day. The manager drills it into us, we pick it up and we practise it, we do it in our drills in our sessions and then we execute it in a game. All the patterns of play that you see is stuff that we work on in the training ground throughout the whole week. Hopefully there's more of that style of football to come.

Another impressive thing has been the hunger to defend. You've seen forwards tracking back and doing their shift defensively...

That's one of the rules that the manager brought in. If you don't comply to those rules, you won't play – it's as simple as that. It's not just about defenders defending [and] the attackers just watch us defend. It's a whole team thing. I think the counter-attacks that we've potentially been exposed to, we're able to slow them down and get numbers behind, we're blocking shots and we're stopping them from creating anything dangerous. That's down to the work ethic and it's what's demanded. I think if you look at the teams that have been successful in the previous years – including ourselves – it's been of course we're a team that can play football and be really exciting at times, but it's the other end of the pitch that ultimately does win you the league. Normally the team that concedes the least amount of goals or the least amount of big chances will have a really good chance of winning the league.

What will you need to do to leave Old Trafford with three points on Sunday?

Execute the game plan that the manager gives to us and also follow what we've been doing so far – which is being a hard team to beat, win our duels, win our battles, win our one-v-ones, pick up second balls and then control the game and dominate. As well as being ready for a tough, tough fight in a game like this. In games like this I always think form goes out the window, it's more about who wants to win more. As long as we go there with the mentality and the commitment and ready to fight and want to win more and show that on the pitch then we're confident we can go there and get the three points.