Patrick van Aanholt Claims Aaron Wan-Bissaka Is the Best Right-Back in England 'Without a Shadow of a Doubt'
By Adam Aladay
Crystal Palace's Patrick van Aanholt has claimed that former teammate and now-Manchester United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka is a better right-back than Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold 'without a shadow of a doubt'.
Wan-Bissaka and Alexander-Arnold are regarded as two of the finest right-backs in England's top flight for very different reasons. The United number 29 is considered by many to be one of the very best one-on-one defenders in the game, with countless forwards struggling to get the better of him in his short career to date.
As for Alexander-Arnold, he has proven to be one of Liverpool's most valuable attacking outlets from right-back. This season alone, the Englishman has picked up 12 assists and two goals in the Premier League.
As a result, naturally, football fans have begun to debate who is better and more valuable to their team. Van Aanholt has now weighed in on the debate and he's decided to back his former Palace teammate Wan-Bissaka, stating that he's better 'without a shadow of a doubt'.
"Best right-back in the league [Wan-Bissaka]?. Oh, Without a shadow of doubt,” the 29-year-old told the Counter Attack podcast.
“They are different players. Defensively, Aaron is unbelievable, better than Trent. Yes, Trent has got his attacking and his corners, his right leg. But if you ask Wilf [Zaha] who he would want to play against, every other day, Trent or Wan-Bissaka, I think he will say Trent.”
I see some of you get in your feelings about AWB vs TAA...to be clear, Trent is a fantastic full back, all I'm saying is defensively AWB is one of the hardest players in the league to beat 1v1, that's all I've said...now you can debate ???
— Patrick van Aanholt (@pvanaanholt) May 15, 2020
Van Aanholt went on to add that while Wan-Bissaka does not have quite the same influence in attack for Man Utd compared to Liverpool's 21-year-old and needs to work on this, the Dutch left-back still considers him to be a better all-round player.
"I have got respect for Trent, because he does everything with his assists and he is great, but defensively, just ask Sterling how good Wan-Bissaka is," Van Aanholt continued.
"It is a problem, and he will switch. He is one of the best right-backs, I think he could be, his attacking is good, but he needs more goals or assists to his name."