He's here, African star is Trent Alexander-Arnold's regen and he will replace him at Liverpool | OneFootball

There's a Trent Alexander-Arnold regen who is perfect for Liverpool.

The injury to Conor Bradley earlier this season only reinforced an issue that sporting director Richard Hughes was always expected to face.

Despite considerable work behind the scenes, finding someone capable of replicating Alexander-Arnold’s distinctive skill set has proved far more difficult than initially anticipated.

There is also a growing belief that Jeremie Frimpong is seen by Arne Slot as more of an attacking outlet than a traditional right-back, with ongoing injury concerns only adding to the uncertainty.

Frimpong’s strengths are better suited to advanced areas, and he has yet to be consistently trusted in a deeper defensive role.

Meanwhile, Dominik Szoboszlai has occasionally deputised at right-back, but that has always looked like a temporary measure rather than a long-term fix.

Beyond the defensive issues, Liverpool are also acutely feeling the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s creativity.

His ability to control games from deep and carve open defences was central to the team’s identity. Florian Wirtz was expected to help offset that influence, but he has yet to truly replicate it.

Wirtz is more naturally suited to operating higher up the pitch, where he can create in and around the penalty area. Arne Slot did experiment with using him in a deeper role earlier in the season to compensate for Alexander-Arnold’s absence, but the approach proved ineffective.

Given Liverpool’s style of play, they still require someone capable of progressing the ball from deeper areas while consistently creating chances - exactly what Alexander-Arnold provided.

What’s missing is a genuine line-breaker: a player who can influence the build-up phase and regularly produce high-quality opportunities.

The challenge, however, is that there is currently no right-back in world football who truly offers that same unique combination of qualities.

However, there is a left-back who is playing a very similar way to Alexander-Arnold - particularly the Alexander-Arnold playing under Pep Lijnders and Jurgen Klopp towards the end of their reign at Anfield.

And the time, the former Liverpool right-back was instructed to play as an inverted full-back - he regularly dropped into the middle of the park and dictated games from that role.

This was probably Alexander-Arnold's best version.

And now there's a young African talent reproducing a similar role for Alexander Isak's former club - AIK.

Meet 19-year-old Stanley Wilson. A Kenyan who arrived in Sweden last year, initially as a midfielder but he has been converted as a left-back and has even played as a right-back this season.

Wilson is small but he's energetic, robust and he's technically very advanced for someone of his age and in the current level he's playing at.

© IMAGO - Stanley Wilson Liverpool

Playing as a full-back, he plays a key role in dictating the way AIK want to play - especially in the build-up. Wilson will regularly drop into the middle and look to instigate chances and break opposition lines.

The numbers reflect this as well. Wilson averages the most passes into the final third (13.16 per 90 minutes) in the entire Swedish top flight this season, and he also ranks in the top five for progressive passes per 90 minutes (12.01).

On top of this, he is an excellent defender who wins 68% of his defensive duels and averages 5.73 PAdj interceptions per 90 minutes.

At 19-years-old, he is a perfect profile.

With Andy Robertson leaving this summer, Wilson is the perfect option to replace the Scotsman as a back up to Milos Kerkez and he's also an ideal future option to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold.

He's that good.