When Real Madrid paid roughly $13 million to take Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool a month before his contract expired, it looked like a low-risk, high-upside move for a club that has spent years worrying about life after Dani Carvajal. The deal ran until 2031, secured one of the game’s most decorated modern fullbacks in his age-27 season, and put him among Madrid’s better-paid players on a salary reported in the $16–18 million per year range, or more than $300,000 a week.
Alexander-Arnold arrived with a Champions League title, two Premier League trophies and nearly a decade of first-team football at Liverpool behind him, a career arc that had already earned him a place in conversations like The top 10 right-backs in the world 2023/24. For Real Madrid, he was meant to be a ready-made starter on the right, capable of easing the physical burden on an aging Carvajal while adding another playmaker to a squad built around Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappé.
Six months later, the picture is complicated. Since joining in the summer, Alexander-Arnold has been available for only 11 of Real Madrid’s first 20 competitive fixtures, with eight La Liga appearances, one league assist and no goals. His latest injury, a muscle problem in the rectus femoris of his left thigh suffered in a 3–0 win at Athletic Club, is expected to keep him out for roughly two months and may rule him out for the rest of 2025.
That setback did not come in isolation. Earlier this season, he missed about a month with a hamstring issue, with some reports describing this as at least the third separate muscle injury since he arrived in Madrid. The result is a debut campaign that has been defined less by his passing range and more by absences and medical bulletins.
All of this sharpens the central question that now hangs over his time in Spain. Has Alexander-Arnold already passed his peak, or are Real Madrid simply meeting a player who needs a different kind of platform than the one he enjoyed at Anfield?
From Liverpool cornerstone to Real Madrid question mark
To understand where he is, it helps to remember how much football he has already played. Between his Liverpool debut in 2016 and his departure in 2025, Alexander-Arnold made more than 350 appearances for the club, scoring 23 goals and providing 92 assists in all competitions. He was a central part of a side that pressed high, attacked in waves and routinely went deep in multiple competitions each season. By his mid-twenties he had already experienced several 50-match campaigns.
That workload came with physical strain. His final seasons at Liverpool included spells on the sidelines with ankle and thigh problems. Even if no doctor will draw a straight line from that history to his present situation in Madrid, the pattern is clear enough. Alexander-Arnold has entered his late twenties with a significant number of elite minutes already in his legs and with a record of soft-tissue issues that now spans more than one club.
Real Madrid’s context has given him little margin for error. Carvajal is out for two to three months after knee surgery, and Madrid’s depth chart at right back beyond Alexander-Arnold is thin enough that central midfielders and young defenders have been asked to fill in. When he has been fit, he has had to step directly into that vacancy rather than build his role gradually.
The performances themselves have not always helped. Spanish coverage has highlighted the contrast between the creative force he once represented at Liverpool and a quieter version in Madrid who, before his latest injury, had yet to record a single assist this season in La Liga and Europe. That criticism is based on clear metrics rather than mood, and it supports the sense that this is not simply a case of bad luck with injuries.
At the same time, this move did not come out of nowhere. It was part of the broader churn that reshaped Liverpool last summer, a process captured in Wirtz in, Trent out: Liverpool’s boldest summer in years, where his departure to Madrid for around $13 million helped fund a younger core at Anfield. The club that built him was already preparing to move on.
So has he actually peaked?
On a purely physical level, it is hard to argue that the Real Madrid version of Alexander-Arnold is operating at the same level as the fullback who played relentless high-intensity football under Jürgen Klopp. Multiple muscle injuries in less than half a season, limited availability and reduced top-end output suggest a player who can no longer absorb the same load that defined his best years in England. That is not unique to him. Modern fullbacks often pay a price in their late twenties for years spent sprinting up and down the touchline.
Yet “peaked” is not the same as “finished.” Even in his injury-hit months with Madrid, the qualities that made him attractive remain visible when he plays. His passing range, his ability to break lines from deep positions and his comfort drifting into midfield zones have not disappeared. The question is whether Madrid are prepared to recalibrate his role around those strengths rather than expecting the Liverpool version to reappear on demand.
There is a plausible path in which Alexander-Arnold evolves from a high-volume runner into more of a hybrid playmaker, spending less time overlapping and more time as a third midfielder or deep right-sided distributor. This would mean that Madrid needs to wrap their support around him and recognize that they are focusing more on control and progression rather than just quick defensive recovery. It’s also crucial for his body to hold up long enough for him to find a new rhythm, which has been tough in his first half-season in Spain.
For now, the fairest verdict may be that his Liverpool peak is already behind him, at least in terms of physical dominance and durability. Players who accumulate that much mileage that early rarely recreate the same explosiveness in a new jersey. What remains open is whether Real Madrid are witnessing the slow end of an elite career or the difficult, messy middle chapter of a reinvention.
Finding the answer isn’t as simple as looking at one medical report or a pay slip. It really comes down to whether Alexander-Arnold can stay healthy for several months without getting injured. Plus, it’s important for Madrid to create a system that views him as more than just a replacement for Carvajal; they need to see him as a unique talent in his own right. If that happens, his prime years may look different from what came before, but they do not have to be over.
