Liverpool manager Arne Slot revealed that Trent Alexander-Arnold struggled against Manchester United because he was up against the Portugal duo of Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes, Afrosport reports.
Alexander-Arnold struggled to match the pace and power of Dalot and Fernandes with both players having a hand in United’s two goals which came down Liverpool’s right flank which Alexander-Arnold operated from.
Some believe the English full-back’s future, at Anfield which is up in air with six months left on his contract, was a reason for his struggles. Slot however thinks otherwise.
“I don’t believe in those things. I think nine out of 10 people will tell you it affected him but I am one of the 10 that tells you I don’t think that affected him,” he told the club website.
“What affected him was that he had to play Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two starters for Portugal. Great, great, great players. We have a fantastic player here with Diogo Jota and mostly he is not playing for Portugal.
“That tells you how much quality United have and if these players set themselves to a game, and that is what United once in a while do, then it is very difficult to play against them.
“That is more difficult for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than the rumours there were during the week. That’s my opinion and probably everybody will tell you it had to do with the rumours. My opinion is different.”
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The Dutch tactician added: “No, it wasn’t that he had to play them on his own, against those two, because Ryan [Gravenberch] was nine out of 10 times close to that situation. But he was many times faced in a one-v-one situation against those players.
“It was clear that Trent had some difficult moments, as we as a team had, but that is also for Trent not the first time. I think for the majority of the games he played for this club, they were very, very, very good, but I can’t believe if people tell me that he’s never played a bad game for this club. That has probably happened before, and I think mostly against quality players like United have, especially in the positions he had to face.”
Alexander-Arnold has been on the books of Liverpool since 2004 as a youth before breaking into the first team in 2016 and he has featured 334 times in all competitions, scoring 20 goals and providing 85 assists.
