Liverpool suffered a frustrating defeat in Madrid on Tuesday night courtesy of Los Rojiblancos. Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid won the game by a solitary goal and as a result, will now take a narrow advantage into the second leg at Anfield in a few weeks’ time.
Former Red Steve Nicol has been sharing his thoughts on the game at the Wanda Metropolitano and has criticised the performance of Trent Alexander-Arnold on ESPN FC (as per Anfield Watch).
Was Trent Alexander-Arnold a liability in Madrid?
Yes
No
When speaking about Liverpool’s vulnerability on the counter-attack, Nicol said: “Alexander-Arnold doesn’t know how to pick up good positions defensively, and doesn’t know when to go and challenge.
“That means that the man next to him, Joe Gomez, is in no man’s land.
“Everything came down that side, and actually with 15 minutes to go, I thought ‘I’d take a 1-0 defeat today’.
“Quite frankly it could have – and should have – been more.”
According to WhoScored.com, the full-back’s performance was rated at 6.8/10 which was superior to that of both Virgil van Dijk and Andrew Robertson, who escaped any criticism from the 58-year-old.
TIF Tactics – Criticism of Alexander-Arnold feels harsh
In our view, Liverpool had an off-night in general, however, the damage suffered is not beyond repair and they have every reason to feel confident of turning the tie around going into the return fixture.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, despite being just 21 years old, has established himself as the club’s first-choice right-back and has made 121 senior appearances in the famous red strip.
Aside from his defensive capabilities, he’s proven to be extremely effective having provided his teammates with 32 assists to date. In our view, the criticism of Alexander-Arnold, who is valued at £99 million (as per Transfermarkt), seems a little harsh – and based on the player ratings it seems difficult to argue otherwise.