Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s commitment has come under question in recent days and Arne Slot was, again, drawn into defending his vice-captain.
The fallout from Sunday’s performance has not lessened as time has passed, with Alexander-Arnold’s sluggish demeanour difficult for supporters to move past.
He was culpable for both goals conceded against Man United, but Slot defended him post-match by insisting there is no mentality issue from the No. 66.
With a League Cup semi-final on Wednesday and Real Madrid speculation going nowhere, Slot could not avoid further questions about his right-back in Tuesday’s press conference.
When asked how Alexander-Arnold is amid the scrutiny and how sure he is that he remains unaffected, Slot expertly offered this answer:
“We were all disappointed, not only Trent, by the way we played. First of all about the result, and parts of the game we could be quite satisfied with, other parts we were not completely happy with.
“That was not only Trent, there were more things in the game that we could’ve done better.
“Trent didn’t play his best game, I said it already, but that’s not for the first time in his life he didn’t play the best game of his career.
“He’s played so, so many games well for this club. Now it wasn’t his best, like for some others, it wasn’t their best as well.
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“We just pick it up, start training again today because these players know if you play 50/60 games in a season, that once in a while you don’t have your best performance.
“Maybe we should highlight more how good it is that these players are able to play every three days such a good game.
“Apart from the game maybe not being the best, it was, again, an eventful game from Liverpool.
“All the games we’ve played in the last six months, maybe even longer when Jurgen was here, I got many text messages saying ‘what a game again’, ‘unbelievable last 10 minutes both teams playing fully for a win’.
“That is also part of our job, to make it an eventful game and that is what we are trying to do every game, mostly with the result of winning now it wasn’t enough to win it but it was an interesting game to watch.”
‘You have to show them what they can improve’
The questions did not stop there, with Slot then asked if the visit to Tottenham so soon after Sunday will benefit Alexander-Arnold.
He said: “I think it would benefit every player with the disappointing result, we would’ve have loved to win that game.
“So then every player wants to play two days later again. But every player not on the pitch wants to play as well. That’s the good thing, they all want to play.
“Almost all of them are fit, that is quite special at this part of the season as well and I would highlight more that these players show up every three days.”
On any talks with his vice-captain, Slot added: “It is normal that you talk to players, in this situation it wasn’t his best game so there were things I had to show which he has to improve.
“That’s what you do after every game. Sometimes you show them how well they did, mostly when it comes to work rate – so you don’t have to say their brilliant 80-yard pass because they know.
“And sometimes you have to show them what they can improve, but I don’t only do this with Trent.
“We were just talking about Macca, if you look at the second goal we concede, if he sprints a bit hard he can cut off the shot from Diallo as well. There’s always things you can improve.”
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