Arne Slot is confident Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance for Liverpool against Manchester United was not affected by Real Madrid’s growing interest.
The 26-year-old is out of contract at the end of the season, along with team-mates Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, and is yet to agree new terms with his boyhood club.
Alexander-Arnold is understood to be open to joining Real Madrid, with the 15-time Champions League winners known admirers of the versatile full-back. In fact, the Spanish giants are he was understood to have approached Liverpool on a potential January transfer – a move that would bring the Englishman to Madrid now paying a fee and not for free in the summer.
Attention turned to the pitch on Sunday as Liverpool took on bitter rivals Manchester United at Anfield, with the the game ended in an entertaining 2-2 draw. Alexander-Arnold struggled throughout the game, having seemingly come under fire from Ruben Amorim and United as they attacked down his flank time and time again.
Conor Bradley replaced Alexander-Arnold before full-time, with Slot questioned about the latter’s obviously lackluster performance in his post-match media duties.
“Trent have mostly played very good games for the club. Today was not their best game, but that was also to do with them,” said the Dutchman. Sky Sports. “Sometimes Ryan (Gravenberch) wasn’t close enough to him, so it was a two-on-one situation. I would put it more down to the quality of (Diogo) Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.”
He added in his press conference: “I don’t believe in that stuff (when asked if speculation about a move to Madrid had proved a distraction). I think nine out of 10 people will tell you it affected him, but I’m the 10 who tells you I don’t think it affected him What affected him was that he had to play with Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two big, big, big players.
“We’ve got a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota and above all he’s not playing in Portugal. That tells you how much quality United have and if those players put themselves up for a game, and that’s what United do from time to time, then It’s very difficult to play against them. It is more difficult for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than the rumors that were there during the week the opinion is different.”
Alexander-Arnold did draw criticism Liverpool legend i Sky Sports However, pundit Jamie Carragher, who admitted he was expecting a quality performance against United.
“Trent Alexander-Arnold was really poor. It couldn’t have gone much worse for him,” Carragher said. “I expected him to put in a big performance, I thought United’s system would play into his hands and he would have room to put his head up.
“He was poor defensively, but we’ve seen that before. There was nothing going forward today. He wasn’t really involved with the ball.
“Only he knows if the conversation with Real Madrid it has affected him.”
