Before the 2022/23 English Premier League campaign got underway, Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of the most picked players, quite rightly so because he is one of the best young players in English football today.

However, things haven’t turned out as many people expected. He has not earned many points for people who included him in their fantasy football teams, costing them a lot of money.

Many players have been reluctant to get him out of their team and hope he will start earning points soon. The question being asked here is, should you have Trent Alexander-Arnold in your FPL team, or should you try and find value elsewhere?

If you were to look at the latest Premier League football betting odds, you’ll notice Liverpool aren’t favourites to succeed in many areas at all. As such, you’d be right in considering TAA’s position in your FPL team. That being said, he’s a unique talent, and one who may help your team.

How has Alexander-Arnold fared so far in the FPL points system?

Trent Alexander-Arnold is one of the most expensive Fantasy Premier League players that money can buy. Despite not earning anywhere near the number of points he should have racked up by now, he is still one of the top 10 most expensive players, which many find baffling. 

He has failed to live up to this price tag, and people who have kept hold of him are starting to lose patience. Each fantasy football website has a slightly different points system, and the valuation of each player and how much you can spend to build your team also varies somewhat from one website to the next.

Alexander-Arnold is an average player at many of today’s best fantasy football websites. For example, at one particular site, where he costs a whopping £10.8 million, he has only earned 62 points. In comparison, 29 other cheaper defenders have earned more points than him.

Let’s take a quick look at some examples. The top 10 DEFENDERS with the most points at the time of writing are the following:

• Newcastle United’s Kieran Trippier with 116 points – cost: £7.8 million
• Arsenal’s William Saliba with 106 points – cost: £7.4 million
• Arsenal’s Gabriel Magalhães with 102 points – cost: £9.1 million
• Newcastle United’s Fabian Schär with 101 points – cost: £7 million
• Manchester City’s João Cancelo with 99 points – cost: £11 million
• Arsenal’s Ben White with 98 points – cost: £8.4 million
• Liverpool’s Virgil Van Dijk with 94 points – cost: £10.7 million
• Newcastle United’s Sven Botman with 88 points – cost: £7.5 million
• Newcastle United’s Dan Burn with 87 points – cost: £7.1 million
• Chelsea’s Thiago Silva with 83 points – cost: £9.2 million

Honourable mentions

The following players are also much cheaper than Alexander-Arnold, and all have earned more points than he has. In other words, it might be better to find value elsewhere by swapping out Alexander-Arnold for one of these ‘cheaper’ players or one of the top 10 performing aforementioned defenders.

Some of the other reliable defenders that you may want to consider transferring in over the coming weeks are Brighton and Hove Albion’s Lewis Dunk (78 points), Tottenham Hotspur’s Eric Dier (also 78 points), or Brentford’s Ben Mee (77 points). Other possible candidates with more points than Alexander-Arnold right now are Tim Ream, Pascal Struijk, Luke Shaw, and Kalidou Koulibaly, to name a few. The value is out there, you just have to scout out the hidden gems.