The sight of a furious Virgil van Dijk venting his frustrations at Trent Alexander-Arnold during the encounter with Manchester United is a fair reflection of the quality of the latter’s showing at Anfield.
Our No.66 posted perhaps his worst outing in the famous red shirt in the 2024/25 campaign as Arne Slot’s men succumbed to a 2-2 draw against their traditional arch-rivals.
To be completely fair to our vice-skipper, he was hardly alone in failing to impress in periods of the clash, with the hosts struggling to impose themselves in the opening 45 minutes of action.
That said, he was absolutely guilty of losing the ball that granted United a goal from the following counter-attack – and likewise, alongside Ryan Gravenberch, for failing to track Lisandro Martinez’s run into the box.
Lisandro Martínez unleashes a thunderbolt strike beyond Alisson! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/z3vmqkbIol
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) January 5, 2025
A bad day for fullbacks all around, with Andy Robertson also notably failing to make his presence felt ahead of Amad Diallo’s well-taken equaliser.
A game to forget for Trent Alexander-Arnold
Jamie Carragher called out what he deemed to be an ‘awful’ performance from Liverpool’s first-choice right-back at Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
“Awful from Alexander-Arnold again. He’s not at the races,” the former Red spoke on Sky Sports’ live coverage.
“He may have to come off.”
Evidently, Arne Slot agreed to a certain degree, with the Dutch head coach opting to hook Alexander-Arnold in the 86th minute, throwing Conor Bradley into the fray.
A substitution that perhaps came a little too late in our eyes.
Sofascore’s collection of stats from our Academy graduate’s showing would certainly support the view that he had a largely ineffective game against Ruben Amorim’s side.
A 6.7/10 score was perhaps a little generous after failing to win a single ground duel (from five contested), registering one key pass (amongst 60 attempted passes) and an xA total of 0.11.
We’ve seen much better from the 26-year-old, and we’ve no doubt he’ll be back to his best in our next clash against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup.
Liverpool’s decision-makers will certainly be hoping for a lot more if he’s to sign a contract extension.
I never blame one player for goals against us but today I blame Trent. He was absolutely shocking. Our other defenders were in disarray because of him. They couldn’t do their own defending because of covering for Trent’s lack of.
He’s a disgrace holding the club to ransom over a new contract and playing like that .
I think we will be lucky if RM come back.
I have to agree Trent had an absolute mare
Slot should have replaced him before they scored or even brought a midfielder off put Arnold in midfield and put Bradley at right back
Sell him this window. Absolute disgrace!
Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone. Who on earth has not had a bad day? Who knows what is troubling someone?
Please shut up.
Trent is a professional and not a baby. He should man up. I wouldn’t pick him as a captain for the team after Virgil. He ain’t worth it.
Trent had never been that classic as quite a number of commentators had praised him. He was the one that gave a bad back pass during the match with Cristal Palace resulting in Alison having a hamstring injury. We could see Alison having to kick away the pass. Let home go.
Trent was poor however not the only one in this game. 2 points lost however the game was not which surely would have been dismal. I’m sure Slot will address this.