Liverpool kit man explains why Alexander-Arnold doesn't change his No.66 at Reds

Trent Alexander-Arnold continues to wear the unusual number 66 for Liverpool because he is too "laidback" to ask for it to be changed, according to the club's main kit man.

Like all the other young players to come through the academy system, Alexander-Arnold was given a higher kit number as part of the huge Liverpool squad, while those in the first-team picture take the numbers closer to the traditional one to 11.

The 21-year-old is now an established first-team player and an England international, however, he continues to wear the number 66 - and Liverpool's kit management coordinator Lee Radcliffe puts that down to the right back's modest personality.

Radcliffe told the Liverpool club website: "When we get any young lads that come down from the academy, we always deliberately try to give them a high-ish number. We don't like to give them a low number in case they sort of think they've made it straight away, if you know what I mean.

"You pick it out because it's a free number and it's around that sort of number you think, 'We'll give that out because he's only just come down'.

"When you see him now lifting trophies and celebrating with 66 on the back, it's a weird feeling and I can't really describe it. It's weird to see such a high number and for someone to be happy with it!

"Someone like Trent has just been happy to be around the first team and obviously doesn't realise how good he is. He doesn't really ask for anything, to be honest. I think he's that laidback that he's obviously been given the number and thought, 'Yeah, that'll do me. I'll keep that', and not realised how iconic it's become over the years."

Wearing the number 66, Alexander-Arnold has made 125 first-team appearances for Liverpool and has helped the club win the Champions League - not least with his quickly taken corner for the fourth goal in the semi-final second leg victory over Barcelona - and put them on the verge of a first English league title in 30 years before coronavirus caused the Premier League to be suspended.

However, he does not seem concerned over turning the number 66 into a brand, confessing in a recent Twitter Q&A that he does not know whether he will keep the digit for the rest of his career.

Ratcliffe revealed that the Liverpool kit staff used to keep Alexander-Arnold's jersey later than the rest of the first team in case he finally decided to change his number, but now - with the number appearing on an increasing number of fans' shirts - they realise it is here to stay.

He said: "Generally what you get after maybe a year – if they stay in and around the first team – is that request to see if they can move down a number, but obviously Trent's got quite attached to the number. He's never asked once.

"After his first season and when you realised how good he was going to be, we always used to say, 'Ah, it won't be long now before we get that changed'.

"We always used to keep his training kit and match shirt until the last minute in case we got that call, 'Trent wants his number lowering'. It's just never happened and he's obviously happy with it.

"Now because it's actually been kept by Trent, I think it's already quite an iconic number and it's only going to become more iconic I suppose as the years go by and the more games Trent plays.

"I think it's a number quite close to a lot of fans' hearts now, as well as staff, because it's a local lad that's come through. The amount of kids you see walking around in a '66', it's weird that it's actually stuck. It was one of them that you give out and expect a year later that it'll get passed on to someone else."