TalkSport pundit and former Liverpool player Danny Murphy has shared his criticism for Trent Alexander-Arnold and his display against Real Madrid.
The Merseyside club fell to a 5-2 defeat at Anfield on Tuesday night against the reigning European champions, despite having a 2-0 lead after 14 minutes.
This has now led to one of Liverpool’s defender’s receiving a scathing assessment from one pundit who knows what it’s like to play for the Reds.
Speaking on TalkSport, Murphy had this to say about Alexander-Arnold’s performance.
He said: “Poor, defensively, he couldn’t cope. Could not cope. He doesn’t see the danger.
“The bizarre thing is, watching the game live, Trent did some things last night, some of his passing and crossing, that not many right-backs in the world can do from an attacking point of view.
“But then, he’s doing some things defensively that you wouldn’t expect players to do in the lower leagues – switching off from runners behind. It’s like it’s got worse for him, not better.”
With the full 90 minutes under his belt, Alexander-Arnold had 104 touches of the ball in total, which is more than any other Liverpool player had on the night.
From a defensive point of view, despite making three tackles and two interceptions, the full-back found himself getting dribbled past on two occasions and losing five of the 11 duels he was involved in.
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Bearing in mind how two of Real’s five goals came from Alexander-Arnold’s direct opponent, Vinicius Junior, it’s easy to see why the spotlight has been put on the 24-year-old in terms of Liverpool’s defensive weakness.
In fact, the Liverpool Echo highlighted this and mirrored what Murphy said by claiming that the Englishman “found it difficult to cope” with the Brazil winger in the second half.
With the right-back’s defensive work being criticised in the past, this backs up Murphy’s point that this area of his game has not improved despite the clear quality of the opposition he was up against in midweek.
Taking all of this into consideration, it’s hard to disagree with the former Liverpool midfielder that while Alexander-Arnold may carry an attacking threat with his passing, some work needs to be done concerning his defensive output.