Trent Alexander-Arnold has admitted that Liverpool defender Joel Matip was caught out for Leicester City’s opening goal last night.
Leicester opened the scoring after just four minutes at Anfield, shocking the home crowd. A goal borne from dreadful Liverpool defending, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was afforded the freedom of the Kop end to slot past Alisson Becker.
It was a shocking goal to watch back. And speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Alexander-Arnold attempted to explain what had gone wrong.
“We’ve been told what to do but within that, the manager knows there are times when you have to drop and there are times when you have to play a high time. I’m right up there pressing the left-back, and that’s when we kind of leave ourselves a bit exposed if we don’t get it right,” explained the 24-year-old.
“The goal kick took Joel [Matip] a bit by surprise when it came short, and then it got a bit scruffy. I haven’t watched it back but I think Robbo got caught in two minds. You couldn’t catch up then, and it was a good finish.”
It can happen, that much is true. But the Liverpool defence was poked holes in constantly throughout the 90 minutes. This wasn’t a one-off. Thankfully, Leicester weren’t able to make the most of other presentable opportunities.
A bizarre end to the year at Anfield
What a strange game yesterday’s clash with Leicester was. End-to-end right from the first minute, the match contained three quite bizarre goals.
The two Liverpool strikes obviously speak for themselves. Wout Faes will not want to watch the highlights back in a hurry.
But even with the absurdity of the two own goals, the Leicester one was perhaps the most baffling of all.
How could Liverpool get it so wrong? Trent’s explanation is an easy one to digest; Liverpool were expecting the short goal kick and so pushed up, instead Danny Ward opted to go long. But is that good enough?
For a side like Liverpool, with top-class defenders in Matip and Virgil van Dijk, almost certainly no.
And it was far from the only occasion this happened, too. Only sheer luck and poor decision making prevented Leicester from scoring more on the night. Liverpool will have to be better defensively against an in-form Brentford next time out. Roll on 2023.