Alexander-Arnold vs Cancelo: Comparing the prime PL stats of Liverpool and Man City stars

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joao Cancelo are two of the best full-backs in the world.

Like, seriously, the Liverpool and Manchester City ballers have practically reinvented what it means to play on the defensive flank with their myriad attacking talents making them absolutely box office to watch.

Yes, we’re well aware that Alexander-Arnold is going through a tough time with the defensive side of his game, but he nevertheless endures as one of the Premier League‘s finest ever right-backs.

The brilliance of Alexander-Arnold

At the end of the day, with the exception of the last few months and the middle section of the 2020/21 campaign, the Liverpool star has been far more watertight on the back foot than most fans will give him credit for.

Besides, his very best seasons in the famous red jersey haven’t just been so special because of his dizzying assist tallies, but also because of his defensive solidity too alongside the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson.

In fact, there’s good reason to think that Alexander-Arnold in his prime might just mark the highest heights that any Premier League full-back has ever reached.

Soccer Football – Premier League – Leicester City v Liverpool – King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain – December 26, 2019 Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold celebrates scoring their fourth goal REUTERS/Andrew Yates EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or “live” services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details. Alexander-Arnold vs Cancelo

And to test that theory, we’ve decided to put Alexander-Arnold’s greatest ever Premier League campaign up against the high watermark of the aforementioned Cancelo to see what happens.

‘But why Cancelo?’ we hear you ask.

Well, we could have compared Alexander-Arnold to the most popular pick for the greatest right-back in Premier League history, Gary Neville, but there are two key complicating factors that made us look elsewhere.

Firstly, the same level of data coverage on the Premier League’s official player comparison tool isn’t available prior to the 2006/07 season and therefore Neville’s prime, but also, the simple fact of the matter is that their two job descriptions as full-backs were completely different.

What it means to be a right-back or left-back has changed so much since Neville hung up his boots that it just wouldn’t be sensible to compare apples and oranges.

1 of 40

We’ll start easy…

Michu Chico Flores

What are Cancelo and TAA’s best seasons?

So that’s where Cancelo comes into things because not only is he a modern and swashbuckling full-back in exactly the way Alexander-Arnold is, but we think that he should also be in the conversation for the Premier League’s greatest ever players in that position.

And we’re selecting the Manchester City star’s prime season as being last year where he made more Premier League appearances than ever before and made it into the PFA Team of the Year.

However, he’s up against stiff competition in the form of 2019/20 Alexander-Arnold, which we narrowly chose over the previous season that landed him a 19th-place finish in the Ballon d’Or.

But we think that it was his Premier League-winning year that marked his best campaign to date as he registered a career-high number of appearances and assists in the competition, as well as being named PFA Young Player of the Year.

Soccer Football – Community Shield – Liverpool v Manchester City – King Power Stadium, Leicester, Britain – July 30, 2022 Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold in action with Manchester City’s Joao Cancelo Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Boyers Comparing Cancelo and TAA’s prime stats

So, to make things plain and simple: we’re putting prime Alexander-Arnold (2019/20) and prime Cancelo (2021/22) up against one another to see who had better Premier League statistics that year.

Got it? Right then, well, let’s see how the battle of the full-backs unfolded by checking out the results down below:

If we speak…

Don’t say it… don’t say it… don’t say it… Cancelo gives him a run for his money.

Now, look, it was always going to be the case that Alexander-Arnold would wipe the floor with anybody you put in front of him in regards to assists and his Premier League record for a defender of 13 is truly something to be marvelled at.

And he does indeed have the edge from an attacking perspective with more goals, fewer big chances missed and far less wasteful shot-taking with Cancelo only scoring once from his 81 efforts.

Read more: Van Dijk vs Varane: Comparing the prime stats of Liverpool and Man Utd stars

However, it’s from that point onwards that Cancelo truly puts a cat amongst the pigeons as he benefits from Pep Guardiola’s ‘tika-taka’ brand of football to boss the passing and touches data.

And he asserts his authority even more in the defensive metrics as he racked up more clean sheets, conceded fewer goals, made more interceptions and tackles, dropped fewer errors leading to goals and won a superior number of aerial duels.

Then again, it’s Alexander-Arnold who comes out on top for big chances created, crosses, blocks, clearances, headed clearances and he was dispossessed less often.

Soccer Football – Champions League – Group G – Sevilla v Manchester City – Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Seville, Spain – September 6, 2022 Manchester City’s Phil Foden celebrates scoring their second goal with Joao Cancelo REUTERS/Marcelo Del Pozo Cancelo or TAA: Take your pick

So, depending on what it is you value most in your defenders, you could lean towards either player for having the superior prime Premier League season.

And that’s the point really because it’s no slight on Alexander-Arnold to say that Cancelo, therefore, should be getting more respect in the conversation surrounding the best full-backs that the league has seen since 1992.

Everyone who saw Alexander-Arnold killing it for Liverpool on the way to Premier League glory will know that anyone who can hold their own with his statistics must be an absolute baller himself.

Buy your Jurgen Klopp t-shirt from the GMS Shop

The pair of them truly are a joy to behold.

Goldbridge & Klopp SLAM UNFAIR CITY! Are they RIGHT? 🤔 (Football Terrace)

You can find all of the latest football news and rumours right here.

next story previous story News Now – Sport News