Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold was getting ‘ripped’ by Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma during this afternoon’s game.
That’s the view of TalkSPORT pundit Gabby Agbonlahor. Speaking to the radio show after today’s match, the pundit singled out Trent for what he perceived to be an especially poor display.
“That team that was put out today, that team should not be losing 3-0 to Brighton. That team shouldn’t be having 38% possession, two shots on target. Brighton had 240 more passes,” railed Agbonlahor.
“Trent, he’s back to the Trent we were saying didn’t want to defend. Today he was getting ripped by Mitoma, and he wasn’t even running back to try and help someone who’s covering for him. Liverpool were a shambles and Jurgen Klopp, for me, has a lot to answer for.”
Trent far from Liverpool’s biggest problem
This seems a little unfair on Trent. Perhaps it would be too obvious to call Agbonlahor’s punditry ‘lazy,’ but that’s exactly what this is.
Mitoma certainly gave the 24-year-old a tough time, but he’s a really good player. There have been plenty of matches this season where this would be a legitimate criticism of Alexander-Arnold, but today doesn’t feel like one of them.
By contrast, the right-back was actually one of Liverpool’s better players on Saturday.
Had the Reds’ forwards been slightly more alert, Trent could even have ended the day with a couple of assists.
Of course, his attacking ability isn’t what Agbonlahor is questioning here. But even going off his defending, the England man was far from Liverpool’s biggest problem at the Amex.
That dubious honour fell, on this occasion, to Joel Matip. Who knows whether Liverpool would have held Brighton off in the second-half regardless, but his poor ball to Jordan Henderson straight after the break was absolutely suicidal.
Having ridden out a first-half storm driven by the likes of Mitoma, this set them back to square one.
So, instead of constantly singling out Alexander-Arnold whenever Liverpool have a collectively poor defensive display, these ‘pundit’s should look a little deeper