Joe Cole has claimed that Liverpool’s under-fire right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold can still get better.
Alexander-Arnold has faced a mountain of criticism this season for his perceived defensive weaknesses. But speaking during ITV’s coverage of Morocco vs Croatia, Cole backed the Liverpool man.
“I would trust him, in a certain system, with a defensive plan he’s a fantastic player,” said the former Reds forward, before commending Trent on a recent interview. “His answers were brilliant, he’s mature, Trent is a top, top player. He’s not perfect, he’s improving.”
“What he said there really is interesting. ‘People talk about what I can’t do’ and that’s become a theme with Trent. He’s having one of those moments in his career whenever he makes a mistake, he’s getting punished for it. But you can’t forget what a weapon he is for England.
“Would you play him in a back four against Mbappe? Probably not. Would you play him in a back five against most team? I would. At twenty-four, I still think there is improvement from him.”
Trent misses England opportunity
This is a good, level-headed take from Cole. There have been all kinds of hyperbolic claims flying around about Alexander-Arnold this season. To his credit, Trent himself has recognised that.
But in reality, the Liverpool defender is a top, top player. He’s won pretty much everything there is to win at club level. You don’t get there at his age unless you’re something special.
Unfortunately for Trent, that seems to have been lost a little on England manager Gareth Southgate.
With Reece James and Kyle Walker both not fit to play, an opportunity opened up for the Liverpool man to start against Iran on Monday.
True to form though, Southgate went cautious, and went with Kieran Trippier. Plenty have argued that that’s fair enough, Trippier is in excellent form for Newcastle, and he is.
But when you’ve got a player like Alexander-Arnold at your disposal, you simply have to use him.
It’s probably the case that, unless they’re Liverpool fans, the watching public have no idea just how good the right-back is.
They see snapshots of him and decide he’s a bad defender. But Reds supporters know full what he can do, and it’s frustrating to see him discredited over and over again. Hopefully his time will come.
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