Steve Nicol has labelled Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance against Napoli as ‘unacceptable’ and told Jurgen Klopp to drop the 23-year-old against Wolves on Saturday.
The Reds suffered an embarrassing 4-1 defeat against the Serie A outfit in their opening Champions League clash last night with a number of lacklustre showings from Klopp’s star men.
The Merseysiders were 3-0 down at half time in Naples and despite a slight improvement in performance from the side as a whole during the second half, Nicol has slammed our No. 66 for his performance.
“Unacceptable. Unacceptable. I don’t know what other way to put it,” he told ESPN (via the Express).
“It’s unacceptable and Klopp’s going to have to do something to change it. And if it means he sits him on his backside as a reminder, then he’s going to have to do it.
“Because it’s unacceptable. There’s no other way to put it. It’s unacceptable for a professional player to walk.”
The England international played the full 90 minutes at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium but despite the transfer window closing recently at the beginning of the month, it appears that the Academy product could benefit from some competition for his spot at right back.
Joe Gomez, who had a night to forget against Napoli, can operate at right-back while Calvin Ramsay, the summer arrival from Aberdeen, is expected to compete with Trent once he returns to fitness.
The main concern for fans was the way in which Alexander-Arnold, as well as many others, looked extremely disinterested against the Italians.
His hunger to retain possession when we lost it just wasn’t there and the role he played in André-Frank Anguissa’s goal was hard to watch.
One thing that you can usually expect from this Liverpool side is for the work rate and commitment to be constant.
But that is something that has been missing for the majority of this season and that has been reflected in our results.
Klopp claimed that Wolves would’ve been laughing at our performance last night ahead of their trip to Anfield on Saturday and it’s hard to argue against the German tactician.
The 55-year-old will certainly be considering a number of changes ahead of our clash with Bruno Lage’s side.
Thiago Alcantara impressed when he entered the fray on the hour mark last night and Reds fans will be hoping to see him from the start at the weekend.
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