Opta analyst David Segar looks at the Dutch right-back’s attributes following his move to Premier League champions Liverpool

Opta analyst David Segar has crunched the numbers to explain why Liverpool have chosen Jeremie Frimpong as Trent Alexander-Arnold’s replacement.

Football moves fast.

On 5 May, Trent Alexander-Arnold announced he would leave Liverpool at the end of the season. Three weeks later, it was confirmed that Real Madrid had reached an agreement with the Premier League champions to sign the right-back.

Now, his replacement has been found, with Jeremie Frimpong – pictured above playing against Liverpool last November – moving to the Reds from Bayer Leverkusen.

Liverpool sign Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen

Perhaps the signs were there. In an interview with Rising Ballers in January, Frimpong revealed that he almost signed for Liverpool as a youngster but opted for Manchester City because the training ground was easier to get to.

“I chose Liverpool first,” he explained. “I was going to sign for them, but driving was impossible at the time. My family didn’t drive and the roads were long. Man City were a local club, so it made more sense. It was only a 15-minute bus ride.”

Frimpong, playing for Man City, faces Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka in a Premier League 2 match in January 2019

Then, in March this year, when the Netherlands squad were gathered for the international break, Frimpong greeted Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch with “You alright, la?” in his best Scouse accent.

What is Frimpong’s best position?

However, before Xabi Alonso arrived at the BayArena in October 2022, Frimpong spent his career as a full-back in a back four, during his youth years at Man City, 18 months at Celtic and his first two years in the Bundesliga.

At least it worked for Alonso. By allowing Frimpong and left-back Alex Grimaldo to attack high and wide, the Spaniard got a lot in return.

Frimpong was a key figure in last season’s incredible campaign, as Leverkusen won their first Bundesliga title, unbeaten in the process – the first team to do so in Germany – as well as winning the DFB-Pokal and reaching the UEFA Europa League final.

Frimpong scored 14 goals and provided 10 assists in 47 games, with only three Leverkusen players having more than 24 involvements.

Frimpong’s participation target 2023/24

Leverkusen didn’t quite make it in 2024/25, finishing second in the Bundesliga behind Bayern Munich, who also knocked Alonso’s side out of the UEFA Champions League in the round of 16. Frimpong still managed a respectable 14 goals (five goals, nine assists) in 48 games, and again only three of his teammates managed to surpass that tally.

With Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool, Conor Bradley was expected to get more opportunities. However, with the Northern Ireland international missing so many games through injury in the last two seasons, it would be a risk not to add another right-back to the squad.

How Frimpong and Alonso have brought out the best in each other

What kind of player is Frimpong?

The most notable thing about Frimpong is his movement.

He sprints a lot. According to Bundesliga figures, Frimpong is the second-highest sprinter in the German top flight in 2024/25, behind only RB Leipzig’s Ridle Baku (1,031), who has 1,021 more.

Frimpong is also fast. He clocked the seventh-highest top speed in the Bundesliga in 2024/25 (36.34 km/h), ahead of the likes of Alphonso Davies (36.24 km/h) and Karim Adeyemi (36.18 km/h).

By comparison, only five Premier League players clocked a higher top speed in 2024/25. The fastest ever by a Liverpool player was 35.47 km/h by Jarell Quansah.

On the ball, Liverpool will lose a lot of long passes after Alexander-Arnold’s departure. No Reds player made more than 299 long passes – a pass of at least 32 metres – in the 2024/25 season, while his accuracy was 42.1%, given how ambitious many of those passes were.

Frimpong made significantly fewer long passes in the 2024/25 Bundesliga, just 32, while 11 of his Leverkusen teammates made more.

Click on the arrows to compare Alexander-Arnold and Frimpong’s long passes.

You might think this is influenced by his attacking position, but Frimpong only made 77 long passes in 2021/22 when playing mainly as a full-back; he essentially doesn’t extend the passing range like Alexander-Arnold – but which other right-back does?

That’s not to say Frimpong doesn’t get his team forward, though. The Netherlands international often prefers to run the ball rather than pass it.

A carry is when a player travels five metres or more with the ball, and only two Bundesliga players who made at least 250 carries in 2024/25 averaged a longer carry than Frimpong’s 8.3 metres (from 278 carries).

Thirty-one Bundesliga players made more than his 192 progressive runs – carrying the ball at least five metres up the pitch – in 2024/25. But in 109 of those runs, Frimpong advanced the ball at least 10 metres, a figure only 12 players could better. Once he gets going, he’s hard to stop.

By contrast, Alexander-Arnold made just 64 long runs in 2024/25.

Frimpong is also effective in these situations. He has four assists from a run in the Bundesliga this season, bettered only by teammate Florian Wirtz (five) at Leverkusen and Mohamed Amoura (six) at Wolfsburg.

When Frimpong played as a right-back in 2021/22, he averaged even further, 9.7 metres (from 354 runs). Only Filip Kostic at Eintracht Frankfurt (10.1 metres from 384 runs) averaged more in the Bundesliga that season (minimum 250 runs).

Another thing Liverpool will miss after Alexander-Arnold leaves is his crosses. While Frimpong is not a set-piece specialist, he has plenty of crosses from open play. In fact, only Maximilian Mittelstadt has more than Frimpong with 116 crosses from open play in the Bundesliga this season.

He could potentially make gains in accuracy, with seven players registering more than his 22 successful crosses from open play, but Alexander-Arnold has only surpassed that figure once (23).

Frimpong also tends to attempt shots closer to the touchline than Alexander-Arnold, although that will obviously be affected by his higher starting position.

 

Unless Liverpool change the way they play from the back, Frimpong can expect to see more touches as a regular right-back.

In 2024/25, he averaged just 50.1 touches per 90 minutes in the league, compared to Alexander Arnold’s 87.9 and Bradley’s 83.7.

A significant number of his touches came from dangerous areas, although his status as a full-back clearly has an impact on that.

Only Wirtz (162) and Patrik Schick (118) had more touches in the opposition box than Frimpong (117) for Leverkusen in the Bundesliga in 2024/25, while his 4.5 touches in the opposition box per 90 minutes was significantly higher than Alexander-Arnold’s 1.9.

However, despite playing at right-back rather than full-back, Bradley averages 5.4, which could be where Frimpong’s more direct running starts to come into play.

Arne Slot may want his right-back to get into the box more than Alexander-Arnold, while Bradley did so to great effect when he assisted Harvey Elliott’s opener in Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat to Brighton.

 

What has been puzzling for some in the pursuit of Frimpong is the defensive aspect. Alexander-Arnold is a fantastic talent but has endured criticism for his defensive weaknesses over the years, and some have also pointed to Frimpong as a potential weakness in this area.

It would be inaccurate to say that Frimpong is a great defender, but it would be unfair to say that he is a bad one either.

As mentioned, between joining Leverkusen in January 2021 and Alonso’s arrival in October 2022, Frimpong played 43 Bundesliga games, mostly at right-back. So this is perhaps the best time to assess his defensive abilities, given the different demands on a full-back versus a full-back.

During that time, Frimpong averaged 1.6 tackles per 90 minutes, 0.6 interceptions and won possession 4.8 times per 90. He also won 40.7 percent of his 1.7 aerial duels per 90 minutes.

In the 2024/25 season, Alexander-Arnold averages 2.7 tackles per 90 minutes in the Premier League, while Bradley is closer to Frimpong with 1.7 per 90. Alexander-Arnold averages 1.2 interceptions compared to Bradley’s 0.5; Alexander-Arnold wins possession 5.0 times per 90 compared to Bradley’s 6.1.

Bradley is good in the air, winning 57.9% of his 2.3 aerial duels per 90, but Alexander-Arnold wins just 18.8% of his 0.6 aerial duels.

How good is Frimpong at facing dribblers?

It’s possible to gauge which players are most successful against dribblers by looking at the total number of ‘true tackles’ a player makes, which includes the total number of successful tackles (when the ball is regained or when it is out of play and safe), lost duels (when a player attempts a tackle but fails to get a touch on the ball) and fouls committed while attempting a tackle.

This is a notable metric here, as Alexander-Arnold actually has the lowest success rate of any defender in the Premier League in 2024/25 when it comes to stopping opponents from dribbling past him.

He was passed 2.1 times per 90 minutes, or 56 times in total, at least six more than any other defender in the Premier League.

It’s worth noting that Frimpong’s average position is higher than Alexander-Arnold’s, so he doesn’t get dribbled as often, making just 53 real tackles in the Bundesliga in 2024/25, but he was only beaten 13 times (24.5%).

Of the 145 other Bundesliga players who made at least 50 real tackles in 2024/25, only 35 had a higher success rate.

Frimpong’s pace allows him to drop back and defend against counter-attacks, although he needs to improve his form after doing so, sometimes struggling to slow down enough to stop an attacker breaking inside.

He does have the ability to get his foot out to push the ball away, though, and can use his agility and small stature to his advantage, weaving between the striker and the ball when there is space.

Additionally, at 24, Frimpong could still use some coaching. Despite those accurate tackling stats, Alexander-Arnold’s improvement as a defender under Slot has been remarkable in 2024/25, and the Liverpool boss will be confident of guiding any new full-back to the next level in the position.

Frimpong had a strong bond with Alonso at Leverkusen, as evidenced by his celebration after scoring against Borussia Dortmund, running up to the head coach and jumping into his arms in the final home game before Alonso joined Real Madrid.

How Salah and Frimpong could work together

It will be interesting to see how Frimpong can link up with Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian dominates Liverpool’s right flank in attack, and their heatmap from the 2024/25 season (see below) shows the player would have to play more inside the pitch if they shared a flank.

 

On the other hand, with the ever-quick Salah turning 33 this summer, he may prefer to have someone else distract defenders with his sprints out wide while he cuts inside to add to his tally.

Frimpong’s experience playing in a more advanced position could also help him replace Salah, who could miss a few weeks mid-season at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Frimpong has not only played as a full-back under Alonso, but his Netherlands national team coach, Ronald Koeman, used him primarily as a winger in the most recent UEFA Nations League campaign, including the semi-final against Spain.

Frimpong’s assist for Tijjani Reijnders’ goal in the first leg was a good example of what he can do in that position, passing the ball to the AC Milan midfielder before passing it back for him to finish.

Frimpong’s presence will also be seen as key. Frimpong has played 95 of Leverkusen’s 103 games in all competitions over the last two seasons.

Another plus is that, thanks to his time at Man City, Frimpong is considered a City academy graduate, which is especially important given Liverpool will lose Alexander-Arnold.

Liverpool fans’ reaction to Alexander-Arnold in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal was aimed at a player who wants to leave. It’s worth noting that most stories about Frimpong’s arrival have highlighted the player’s clear desire to be part of Anfield.

The 2024/25 Premier League season has just ended and we are already discussing transfer deals ahead of the 2025/26 season. Like Frimpong, football really moves very quickly.