Boxing Day is one of the most important days of the Premier League calendar and the festive period is filled with multiple games within a short period of time that will require a manager to rotate their squad and show how strong the entire team actually is.

For Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, he made a couple changes to his backline which has been subject to criticism over the season. For their Boxing Day contest against last place Swansea, Klopp had a backline of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan and Andy Robertson, four defenders who aren’t necessarily regular starters but did the job in a 5-0 victory.

And for the 19-year-old Alexander-Arnold, it took a bit of help from his mother to convince Klopp to start him today.

“His mother was in the office of our sports director last week and she told me the whole family from America is over,” Klopp explained to Sky Sports.”

“So I asked if that was an order for him to be in the line-up and she said yes.”

“We are happy for him. It’s a fantastic story.”

“Not a fantastic first half for Trent as well [as the rest of the team], but second half he stepped up and played really well.”

“In training he’s made big steps in the last few weeks and months, so that’s really important for us.”

The move paid off. Not only was Alexander-Arnold instrumental in keeping a clean sheet, he scored his first career Premier League goal in the 65th minute and all but sealed Liverpool’s victory at that time.

Maybe Klopp should consult Ms. Alexander-Arnold about Liverpool’s Starting XI this Saturday against Leicester and maybe Liverpool should invite the Alexander-Arnold family to every game.

[Goal]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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