Joey Barton says Liverpool 'played with 10 men' against Man Utd

01/06/2025 11:04 AM

Joey Barton says Liverpool were essentially ‘playing with 10 men’ against Manchester United as Trent Alexander-Arnold was a ‘passenger’ throughout.

The England right-back had a torrid afternoon in Sunday’s clash at Anfield, with both of United’s goals coming down his side of the pitch.

Alexander-Arnold gave the ball away before Manchester United broke the deadlock, before being booked in the latter stages and then hooked by Liverpool boss Arne Slot.

Anfield legend Jamie Carragher was critical of Alexander-Arnold’s performance and suggested he may have been distracted by talk of a stunning move to Real Madrid.

Liverpool rejected a £20m bid from Madrid last week and the La Liga giants are now considering returning with a second, improved offer.

Ex-United defender Gary Neville, meanwhile, said his former club targeted Alexander-Arnold ‘from the first minute’.

Former Premier League midfielder Barton suggested Alexander-Arnold was already ‘mentally’ in the Spanish capital and said he was ‘non-existent’ against Manchester United.

United had suffered four defeats on the bounce prior to their trip to Anfield but produced a much-improved performance to hold Premier League leaders Liverpool to a 2-2 draw.

‘Liverpool could do with putting Trent on,’ Barton posted on X during the game, before ripping into the England star after the stalemate.

‘Trent clearly mentally in Madrid. Not worth 50p on that showing. If Liverpool played with 11 for the full game, they'd have won that.

‘Trent was non-existent and a passenger for the whole time he was on the pitch. Everything Man United created came down that side.

‘Conor Bradley done more in 10 mins than TTA in the whole game. Better from United but I think that's due to LFC being poor rather than them being good.’

Slot admitted Alexander-Arnold was ‘not at his best’ against Manchester United but dismissed the suggestion he was ‘distracted’ following the bid from Real Madrid.

‘No, no I don't think so,’ he said when asked if he felt the speculation got the better of him. ‘I think Trent has played mostly very good games for this club.

‘There probably have been games that he wasn't on his best; today wasn't his best game, but that probably had something to do with them as well.

‘Especially in the first half, sometimes Ryan [Gravenberch] wasn't close enough to him, so he was sometimes in a two-vs-one situation as well.

‘I would put it more on the performance of Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes than it being down to Trent.’

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