Arne Slot is confident Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance for Liverpool against Manchester United was not affected by growing interest from Real Madrid.
The 26-year-old’s contract expires at the end of the season, as do his teammates Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, and is yet to agree new terms with his boyhood club.
Alexander-Arnold is said to be open to a move to Real Madrid, with the 15-time Champions League winner known to be an admirer of the versatile full-back. In fact, the Spanish giants are said to have approached Liverpool about a possible transfer in January – a move that would see the Englishman move to Madrid now for a fee rather than for free in the summer.
Attention turned to the pitch on Sunday as Liverpool took on arch-rivals Manchester United at Anfield and the game ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw. Alexander-Arnold struggled throughout the game as he appeared to be repeatedly targeted by Ruben Amorim and United attacking down his flank.
Conor Bradley replaced Alexander-Arnold before becoming full-time, with Slot questioned about his apparent poor performance in his post-match media duties.
“For the most part, Trent played very good games for the club. “Today wasn’t his best game, but that was also because of that,” said the Dutchman Sky Sports. “Sometimes Ryan [Gravenberch] wasn’t close enough to him, so it became a two-on-one situation. I would focus more on quality [Diogo] Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.
In his press conference he added: “I don’t believe in these things.” [when asked if speculation over a move to Madrid had proved a distraction]. I think nine out of ten people will tell you it affected him, but I’m among the ten who will tell you I don’t think it affected him. What bothered him was that he had to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two starters for Portugal. Great, great, great players.
“We have a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota and for the most part he doesn’t play for Portugal. It shows how much quality United have and if these players commit to a game, and that’s what United does from time to time, then so be it.” It’s very difficult for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot play. That is my opinion, and probably everyone will tell you that it is related to the rumors is different.”
Alexander-Arnold was criticized by the Liverpool legend and Sky Sports However, pundit Jamie Carragher admitted he was expecting a good performance against United.
“Trent Alexander-Arnold was really poor. “It couldn’t have been much worse for him,” Carragher said. “I expected him to put in a great performance, I thought United’s system would play into his hands and he would have space to put his head up.”
“He was bad defensively, but we’ve seen that before. Nothing went forward today. He wasn’t really involved with the ball.”
“Only he knows whether the conversation with Real Madrid affected him.”