Alexander-Arnold is Real Madrid’s third-choice right-back, and Liverpool have reportedly asked his camp about January
Jose Mourinho has been playing Fede Valverde ahead of him at right-back, and a Spanish report says Liverpool are looking at a January loan.
Nov 2, 2026
Trent Alexander-Arnold started at right-back on Sunday, when Real Madrid won 3-0 at Racing Santander. He got the game because Jose Mourinho had already said Fede Valverde would not start it.
That is where Alexander-Arnold is at Madrid right now. Valverde is a midfielder. Denzel Dumfries arrived from Inter in the summer. And the England full-back, who joined Real to be their first-choice right-back, plays when neither of them does.
Third choice at 28
Before Sunday, Alexander-Arnold had played in seven of Madrid’s 13 games this season and started four of them, according to the BBC. His one assist came in the 4-0 home win over Málaga. He did not play against Roma, Sevilla or RB Leipzig, and in the Clásico he came on in stoppage time.
Mourinho did not pretend to enjoy it when he was asked about it on Saturday. “First of all, it hurts me. I don’t like to make players feel bad. I want them to feel good,” he said. “Obviously, when you build a squad with two players per position as your foundation and then have a third player take the field, that’s something I don’t like.”
He also said he did not expect either Alexander-Arnold or Dumfries to ask to leave.
Alexander-Arnold turned 28 last month and is under contract until 2031. Madrid paid a reported €10 million in 2025 to get him out of his Liverpool contract a month early, so that he could play at the Club World Cup rather than arrive on a free. His first season was broken up by a hamstring problem in September and a thigh injury in December, and he made 14 La Liga starts.
What Liverpool are said to have done
Cadena SER in Spain reports that Liverpool have been in touch with his representatives about a January move. Journalist Pacojó Delgado said on SER Deportivos that the club have been sounding out the player’s camp and gauging how supporters would feel about him coming back. An initial loan, with everything looked at again in the summer, is the shape being talked about.
Nobody at either club has confirmed any of it. Football Insider says neither Liverpool nor the player is actively chasing a reunion, and people close to Alexander-Arnold have said he is not pushing to leave. Cadena SER itself lists his wages as one of the obstacles to a loan.
The report came out on 29 October, and Liverpool’s weekend did nothing to make it go away. On Sunday they lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal without a single shot on target, and they are fifth, nine points behind the leaders. Jamie Carragher said on The Overlap last week that he would take him back. “I think he made a big mistake going to Madrid,” Carragher said. “We’ve definitely missed his creativity.”
It is hard to see Madrid loaning him to a Premier League club halfway through a season, and Mourinho’s line on Saturday was that everyone will get games. Both clubs are away in the Champions League on Wednesday, Madrid at AEK Athens and Liverpool at Fenerbahçe, and both games kick off at 11:15pm IST. Whether Alexander-Arnold starts in Athens will say more than any report out of Spain.