Ian Wright defended Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and claimed that ‘people just cannot wait to bring him down’, as he told Wrighty’s House Podcast.
During Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Southampton on Monday night, Jurgen Klopp substituted Alexander-Arnold in the second-half after a poor showing from one of his key players at St Mary’s.
It was highlighted that the Liverpool academy product lost the ball 38 times during his side’s narrow defeat, as the attack-minded fullback is currently going through a bad period.
But Wright was left annoyed at how Alexander-Arnold is being treated and reminded those critics of his status in world football and the fact that he’s still 22-years-old.
“With Liverpool now, they can feel that something is not quite firing,” said Wright. “You have seen Trent. People going on at Trent. Going on about Trent giving the ball away.
“But when Trent gives the ball away, he’s trying to create, he’s trying to do something and make something happen.
“It’s like with Trent, people just cannot wait to bring him down. We are still talking about arguably one of the best right-back’s in the world, who is going through a period. Remember how old Trent is. In a team that’s meant to be blasting all before them and teams are putting pressure on you.”
In truth, in order to lose the ball a lot of times, you have to ask for the ball and have the ball in the first place.
The more possession-based sides are going to lose the ball a lot more, especially on a bad day because they are dominating the ball.
A player in a less-dominant team might lose the ball 10 out of 15 times, but TAA might end up losing it 25 out of 50 times.
Numbers-wise, the Liverpool man has lost it the most, but on a percentage level, the other guy has lost the ball more, so these things can sometimes be seen in a more negative light than they should be.
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