Trent Alexander-Arnold’s offensive impact is so great any team in the world could utilise him, but his latest poor defensive display was analysed by Gary Neville on Monday Night Football.
Last week, Jurgen Klopp launched an impassioned defence of his right-back, whose World Cup hopes appear to be hanging by a thread, but accepts England manager Gareth Southgate has a different way of playing.
The 23-year-old was called up for the two Nations League matches against Italy and Germany but was an unused substitute for one and failed to make the squad for the second.
There has been a long-running debate as to why he cannot fit into the international side, with his apparent defensive deficiencies putting him behind Manchester City’s Kyle Walker, Chelsea’s Reece James and Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier.
These were exposed once more by Brighton during Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Anfield – and Neville believes the imbalance in his game must be addressed…
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But I started to think about slowing myself down and practising 50 times each afternoon having longer or slower strides and whipping the ball into the box.
It took me until about 26-27 before I felt I became a pretty decent attacking full-back, where I overlapped and put crosses in the box of real quality.
Trent is going to have to do it in reverse. I learned to be a defender first, but Trent has all the attacking attributes. You can develop your game and you can work on these things.
I have been there where you are in a wide area and you feel exposed. He gets no support from Mo Salah outside him in terms of defensive work.
I would get it sometimes from the likes of Darren Fletcher, David Beckham or Ole Gunnar Solskjaer if he was playing on the right. Not so much Cristiano Ronaldo! But Beckham and Fletcher would work like dogs for me to give me that protection. I don’t feel Trent gets that at Liverpool.
Liverpool’s problems wider than Trent issue
He made a couple of mistakes against Brighton but the biggest issue for Liverpool isn’t Trent Alexander-Arnold. There’s always a focal point but Virgil van Dijk is not playing at his absolute best while the sale of Sadio Mane is causing a problem.
Injuries in midfield have also caused them a problem and maybe they should have signed a world-class midfielder in the summer. I also feel they have been punching well above their weight.
They have got an exceptional manager, a wonderful team spirit married with the crowd all coming together. They’ve had an outstanding time but when you look at their net spend compared to these two clubs today [Man City and Man Utd], they are competing with both hands tied behind their back.
The Liverpool fans may start to think they need to be spending at the same rate as the other clubs – like Chelsea have done this summer – but if I was Liverpool I would not be panicking too much. They have still got the best-performing manager in this league over the last four or five years with what he’s done given the spending.
At the moment, it’s not right as we are not seeing that ferocious press but they have built up too much credit in my view to stick the knife in at this point where it would be too early. Liverpool fans and Klopp will be worried, and there will be some disappointment at the level they are at now – which is miles off the level of Manchester City at present.
Are they going to compete this year for the title? Probably not. You never know because Klopp can do the exceptional and he has surprised us by staying on the coat-tails. They pushed them right to the end last season but they had no right to.
Darwin Nunez needs to settle in and they need to get back to the levels they have set.
Carragher: Midfield right now is the big problem
Speaking on Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher reflected on the problem Liverpool have with starting games slowly, with Klopp’s team currently sitting bottom of the table for points won based on the first-half score lines alone.
“It’s a huge concern,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “They are always giving themselves so much to do. They have not lost too many of those games, so it’s not an attitude problem.
“They’ve managed to get back into games. In the past we have spoken about Liverpool conceding goals because of a high line but for me a big problem right now is the midfield.
“Teams are coming through and getting at that back four far too easily – and also early in games, hence the poor starts. Brighton were 2-0 up but I think it’s fair to say it should’ve been 4-0 after 20 minutes because Liverpool are not organised and not difficult to beat as they always were.
“Klopp’s thing was always to make Liverpool the hardest to play against – right now, they look the easiest team to play against. Some of what we saw in the first half against Brighton you would have expected later in games if Liverpool were chasing them.
“Every supporter in the summer would tell you they felt midfield would be a problem this season. Fabinho has been miles off the pace from what he’s been this season. There have been times where they have been lucky in situations.”