Trent Alexander-Arnold got away with a ‘really sloppy’ moment during the first half of Liverpool’s game against Crystal Palace.
The Liverpool right-back played a blind ball back across his own goal – straight into the path of Palace front-man Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Fortunately for Trent, Mateta wasn’t able to beat Alisson Becker, who was on the Frenchman quickly. Nevertheless, the Liverpool man’s sloppiness was lamented by Don Goodman, commentating for Sky Sports at Selhurst Park.
“We’re asking how can Crystal Palace hurt Liverpool, Liverpool can hurt themselves. That is really sloppy, Alexander-Arnold,” said Goodman.
“He’ll be breathing a huge sigh of relief, because Mateta never really looked convincing that he had the ability to score form there. He made it easier than it should have been for Alisson.”
It capped off a really poor start for Alexander-Arnold. The 24-year-old was guilty of one or two poor passes in the opening exchanges.
Trent proving his critics right
Trent really doesn’t help himself with these kinds of passes. Already under the microscope for his defending, he doesn’t need to be giving gifts like this away to his critics.
To be honest though, it isn’t the passes themselves which are the most troubling. Rather, Alexander-Arnold’s reaction every time he concedes play is a bigger concern.
Early in the game, he sent an errand switch of play from right to left- straight out of play. With the camera subsequently focusing on Trent, he appeared to give some verbal back to someone out of shot. Given the direction of his ire, it looked likely to have been aimed at either Virgil van Dijk or Andy Robertson.
Had either Van Dijk or Robertson given Trent both barrels for the pass, they’d have been well within their rights. Early in the game, you don’t want to be setting the tone with pieces of play like that.
But Alexander-Arnold seemingly doesn’t want to accept his error, or accept that he needs to sharpen up a little. That’s troubling.
To be fair to Liverpool’s No.66, he did improve from that point onwards. Unlucky not to open the scoring with a goal-bound free-kick cannoning off Jordan Henderson’s head, hopefully his improvement can continue in the second-half. No more sloppiness please, Trent.