Graeme Souness fears Trent Alexander-Arnold is ‘never going to be a great defender’ while blaming Liverpool’s slow start to the Premier League season upon their struggles in midfield, speaking to talkSPORT (3 October, 11.40am).
With Jurgen Klopp launching an impassioned defence of Alexander-Arnold in the build up to Saturday’s meeting with Brighton and Hove Albion at Anfield, the last thing the Liverpool manager needed was to see his number 66 sprawling on the turf as Leandro Trossard spanked a fourth-minute opener past Alisson Becker and into the bottom corner.
Talk about undermining your point.
Alexander-Arnold was arguably at fault for two-thirds of Trossard’s hat-trick goals this weekend. But Souness believes he is not the only loose brick in Klopp’s crumbling kingdom.
Why are Liverpool and Trent Alexander-Arnold struggling so much?
“The midfield has always been the major part of the team. That’s why it’s called the engine room,” Souness said after Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were given the runaround by Moises Caicedo, Alexis MacAllister, Pascal Gross and co.
“(Liverpool’s midfield) historically, in the last four or five years, has been everything that’s good about the team. They’ve just outworked (the opposition). They bullied them.
“They weren’t doing clever and cute things with the ball where you’re going ‘wow’. But they just made life so difficult. I would not have liked to play against them because they’re after you all the time.
“But that is missing from the game now and the impact that’s having on the whole team is enormous.”
In truth, Alexander-Arnold has never been the most diligent of full-backs. But at least, in recent the past, he could rely upon the awareness and energy of Fabinho and Henderson to cover him on those forward forays.
“All of a sudden, we’re talking about Trent Alexander-Arnold being vulnerable defensively,” Souness adds. “Yeah, he’s never going to be a great defender I don’t think.”
So how does Klopp solve the problem? With a new defensive midfield signing in January perhaps? Caicedo already had admirers at Anfield and will have done his reputation no harm at all on Saturday.
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