Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has suggested that criticism of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is normal.
Speaking to BBC 5 Live’s Football Daily, Walker insinuated that in a game of opinions, the Liverpool man may have to get used to the scrutiny.
“My personal point of view [about Alexander-Arnold criticism] is, it’s going to happen again. People are going to have doubts again. It’s football, it’s about opinions. Some opinions are definitely not right and some are right,” said Trent’s England teammate.
“I remember me being at Tottenham and people were saying I couldn’t defend. Now it’s vice versa, people say ‘he’s not good going forward but he is a great defender’. I’m still the same guy. I’ve also seen a few things saying I’m losing my pace but I feel great, I feel so good.”
Trent soaking up the scrutiny
Walker is right, football is a game of opinions. Sometimes, players can do no wrong. At other points of their careers they seemingly may not be able to do anything right.
Having been in the former stage for a long time, Trent is now finding himself in the latter.
That doesn’t make him a bad player, it may not even necessarily mean that he’s in particularly bad form. It’s just that every now and again, the scrutiny seems to ramp up on certain players.
More often than not, it’s the most talented players who get put under the microscope the most. That’s the way it has always been, and as one of the country’s most high-profile players, Alexander-Arnold is a prime target for a lot of people.
Trent would probably agree that it’s all part and parcel of the game. The 24-year-old also seems to be remarkably mentally strong, whatever gets thrown at him simply seems to bounce off. He doesn’t feel it.
Hopefully that will continue to be the case as he starts to get close to his prime years as a footballer.
In Walker, he has a really good role model to emulate. As he mentions, the City man faced similar accusations to those that Alexander-Arnold is currently facing in respect of his defending.
Since then, the 32-year-old has become one of the most respected right-backs in the world football. With the two getting together during England camps, Trent would be wise to glean as much as he can from his older colleague.
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