Arne Slott is confident that Trent Alexander-Arnold's performance for Liverpool against Manchester United has not been affected by growing interest from Real Madrid.
The 26-year-old's contract expires at the end of the season, along with teammates Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, and he has 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 winner an admirer of the versatile full-back. In fact, the Spanish giants are It is understood he has been approached by Liverpool Probably around January transformation – A move that would take the Englishman to Madrid now for a fee rather than for free in the summer.
All eyes turned to the pitch on Sunday when Liverpool took on arch rivals Manchester United at Anfield The match ended in an exciting 2-2 draw. Alexander-Arnold struggled throughout the game, after he was seemingly targeted by Ruben Amorim and United as they repeatedly attacked his winger.
Conor Bradley replaced Alexander-Arnold ahead of full-time, with Slott questioning the latter's lackluster performance in his post-match media duties.
“Trent has mostly played very good games for the club. Today was not his best game but that had something to do with it too,” the Dutchman said. Sky Sports. “Sometimes Ryan (Gravenberch) wasn't close enough to him, so it was two-on-one. I would put it more on the quality of (Diogo) Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.”
“I don't believe in those things,” he added in his press conference (when asked if speculation about a move to Madrid had proven to be a distraction). I think nine out of 10 people would tell you it affected him but I'm one of those people. The ten that tells you that I don't think it affected him is that he had to play with Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two key players in the Portugal national team.
“We have a great player here with Diogo Jota who mostly doesn't play for Portugal. That tells you how good United are and if these players put themselves in a game, which United do from time to time, it means they are very difficult to play against. Very difficult For Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, compared to the rumors that were around during the week, this is my opinion, and perhaps everyone will tell you that my opinion is different.”
Alexander Arnold has drawn criticism from Liverpool legend and Sky Sports Pundit Jamie Carragher, who admitted he was expecting a good performance against United.
“Trent Alexander-Arnold was really poor. It couldn't have been worse for him,” Carragher said. “I was expecting him to put in a big performance, and I thought United's system would favor him and he would have space to raise his head.
“He was bad defensively but we've seen that before. Today there was no forward movement. He wasn't really involved with the ball.
“Only he knows if he's talking to real madrid “It affected him.”
