Klopp admits own mistake in Trent’s defensive development

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The myth that Trent Alexander-Arnold can’t defend is based pretty much around one game, in all honesty.

Marcus Rashford gave him the run around at Old Trafford as Manchester United won 2-1 in 2017/18 – with the then teenager arguably at fault for both goals.

But since then, you can count the times Trent has been directly responsible for conceding on one hand. And in that same time, he must have been involved in the creation of close to 50.

What’s more, Jurgen Klopp has now taken some of the blame, for failing to give the right-back proper tactical instructions – something he admits was a mistake.

“I know after the United game a lot of people said immediately, that’s how it always is in football, ‘they need a new right-back’ or whatever,” Klopp told the Pure Football Podcast.

“If he makes mistakes like he made in that game that’s really my fault. Especially these mistakes were my fault.

“He doesn’t know to close the inside in these situations. It is of course my mistake. You can say he knows it but he has to use it as well.

“Especially against Rashford playing on the left wing, it is clear you have to do that but I didn’t tell him again before the game.

“So, I really feel responsible for that.”

For us, Trent is the best right-back on the planet by some distance. Creatively, nobody comes close, and as mentioned, the idea of him being defensively suspect is a lazy opinion based on mistakes from two years ago or more.

After all, he starts every week for the team with the best defensive record in the country by some distance. He can’t be that much of a liability at the back, can he?

Trent has recently starred in a YouTube documentary about his upbringing and how he feels being the Scouser in our team. It’s well worth a watch during Quarantine!

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