Liverpool are picking up the pieces after a hectic 2-2 draw against Manchester United at Anfield.
The Reds went into the game as heavy favourites against United, but couldn’t make it count in an end to end game.
In the end, a point is probably a good result for Liverpool, even though they’d have loved to have taken all three.
One player who did not deserve to be on the winning side was Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Roy Keane slammed Alexander-Arnold for his defending in the first-half and things got worse for the right-back in the second.
Inevitably, Arne Slot was asked about Trent’s bad day at the office after the final whistle, but provided an alternative theory as to why the No.66 struggled.
Arne Slot defends Trent Alexander-Arnold
Given all the rumours around Alexander-Arnold and Real Madrid at the moment, this is not going to help the 26-year-old’s reputation around Anfield right now.
Although this is not unusual for Trent, he looked completely disinterested at times against a United team who clearly targeted him.
But according to Slot, the trouble for Alexander-Arnold was more to do with the quality of Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes for Man United.
The Liverpool head coach also interestingly pointed out the role Ryan Gravenberch played in the right-back struggling.
“Today wasn’t Trent’s best game but that had to do with them as well,” Slot told Sky Sports.
“Especially in the first-half sometimes Ryan wasn’t close enough to him, so he was in a two v one situation as well. So I would put it more on the quality of Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.”
Slot highlights Man United quality
It’s true that United were good at Anfield on Sunday. They clearly identified Alexander-Arnold as a problem and did everything to exploit him.
In that respect, Ruben Amorim and his players do deserve some credit, and Slot gave them to him.
Having said that, Alexander-Arnold has to do better. The application just did not look to be there against Liverpool’s biggest rivals.
In terms of Gravenberch, the Dutchman was again one of the Reds better players on the day and it feels a touch harsh to bring him up in regards to Trent’s struggles.
With a Carabao Cup game coming on Wednesday, it feels likely that Conor Bradley will come back in. Beyond that, it will be fascinating to see what Slot decides moving forward.
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