'The worst I've seen': Gary Neville says £180k-a-week Liverpool star was actually so sloppy vs Man United

Yesterday at 03:15 AM

Trent Alexander-Arnold had a game to forget during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

Virgil van Dijk laid into Alexander-Arnold on four separate instances due to his lax defending against Ruben Amorim’s side.

Conor Bradley outshone Alexander-Arnold statistically upon replacing him as the England international had one of his poorest games in a while at Anfield.

It seemed like Manchester United’s gameplan was to target Alexander-Arnold.

The 26-year-old’s positioning was particularly disappointing, as he gave the likes of Diogo Dalot and Rasmus Hojlund plenty of space to get on the end of through balls from deep in dangerous areas.

Analysing where Trent Alexander-Arnold struggled against the Red Devils, Gary Neville did not focus on his defending.

Gary Neville pinpoints Trent Alexander-Arnold weakness during Liverpool vs Man United

Neville pinpointed how he has never seen Alexander-Arnold put in such a wasteful performance with the ball at his feet during Liverpool’s draw against Manchester United.

The pundit said on Sky Sports: “I thought his passing, his forward play was probably the worst I’ve seen it. Because if you think about that pass at the end into midfield that obviously United get the goal from, he doesn’t normally make so many mistakes on the ball, he’s normally a bigger threat with his crossing.”

“I thought he was disappointing on the ball.”

The statistics back Gary Neville’s observation up, with the £180,000-a-week (Sportrac) defender losing the ball a staggering 27 times against Manchester United.

For a player who has renowned for his incredible technical ability and outstanding passing range, the decorated right-back was alarmingly sloppy in possession.

Arne Slot says Real Madrid links did not affect Trent Alexander-Arnold’s performance vs Man United

Real Madrid bid to sign Alexander-Arnold in the January transfer window, a story that has been one of the main talking points across world football recently.

Carlo Ancelotti is eyeing Alexander-Arnold at the Santiago Bernabeu and naturally, being linked with arguably the biggest club in the world can impact any player’s performances.

However, Arne Slot rubbished that being the case in his post-match press conference.

Slot said via BeanymanSports: “I don’t believe in those things but nine out of 10 people will tell you it affected him but I’m one of the 10 that tells you I don’t think that affected him.”

The Dutchman simply felt top players like Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot caused him several problems.

“What affected him is that he had to play Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot, who are two starters for Portugal, great, great, great players and we have a fantastic player here, Diogo Jota and he’s not even playing for Portugal, mostly not playing so that tells you how much quality United has.”

Alexander-Arnold will likely be analysing why he had such a tough time against Manchester United in the coming days.