1 year ago
262 Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has waxed lyrical about Trent Alexander-Arnold ahead of Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Aston Villa.
The Reds boss says he was “super” impressed by how the 24-year-old performed following his poor start against Newcastle United last week.
Alexander-Arnold was booked in the opening minutes against Eddie Howe’s for throwing the ball away after he thought he was fouled.
The defender could’ve easily got a second just a minute later for an arm across Anthony Gordon.
Things became worse for Alexander-Arnold as he gifted Newcastle the opener by mis-controlling a simple pass from Mohamed Salah in midfield.
Despite such a bad start, Alexander-Arnold got better as the game went on. Although he didn’t do much of note, he did make a good clearance at the far post.
Liverpool went on to win in the end, Darwin Nunez scoring in the 81st minute and again in second-half injury time.
‘He was really in it’
“Yeah, super,” Klopp told the Liverpool media team about Alexander-Arnold’s performance after his early setbacks.
“I think a lot of people would have thought, and I thought as well for a minute or two, do we have to change him? Do we have to make that change already?
“And I’m very happy that I didn’t do it and I’m even more happy how Trent got through this game because it is difficult.
“I think we all agree that everybody in the stadium besides the Liverpool fans wanted him to go off as well in the next situation and I’m pretty sure it would have happened if Trent would have given anybody the chance to do so.
“That was a big step in his development, absolutely, to keep his calm and even to step up in the game, because he was really in it.
“He was super-important, in the defensive part, before the first goal; it’s not now a pass everybody will remember forever but it was a sensational pass through the lines – Mo, Diogo, bam, in behind.
“How I said, we learned already a lot this season. We will learn more but we have to use as well already what we have learned so far.”
Our view
Although Alexander-Arnold’s performance wasn’t particularly amazing, he still did well to pull it together after what happened early on.
Besides, Liverpool did enough to get over the line in the end, even with Virgil van Dijk’s red card midway through the second half.
Onto the next one. Aston Villa will be tough opposition at Anfield, so Liverpool will need to be on top of their game.
Hopefully they’ll get into double figures going into the international break so they can build on it without too many anxieties.
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