Paul Merson has taken a dig at Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Despite enduring a relatively poor season for the Reds thus far, the 24-year-old was included in Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar.
The Liverpool right-back is well known for his world-class assets in an attacking sense but, defensively, he leaves quite a lot to be desired.
Chelsea’s Reece James will not be going due to injury and the player released a statement in midweek, admitting that he was truly ‘devastated’ to be left out.
And Merson interprets that statement as an indication of James being fit in a few weeks time, claiming the Blues defender would’ve been a better option than Alexander-Arnold in the knockout games due to the latter’s propensity to ‘fall asleep’.
He told The Star: “Reading his statement, he feels like he is going to be fit in a few week’s time. Now I would have only used him in the knockout stages anyway.
“I’d have wrapped him up in cotton wool because you can use Trent Alexander-Arnold in the group stages where you have 70 per cent of the ball and he’s going to look a world-beater. Then when we come up against France and he falls asleep and Kylian Mbappe scores we’ll all be scratching our heads. I am shocked.”
The Liverpool star, who earns £180,000 per week [Spotrac], is an easy target and really, Merson shouldn’t lump him into this.
Clearly he is disappointed for James not making the final cut, but that’s no need to tear down Alexander-Arnold in the process.
As mentioned, he is something of an easy target for pundits to criticise and hopefully for the Reds right-back, he can leave them all eating their words.
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