Pep Guardiola has told Sky Sports that he could not control Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold early on yesterday, but it was far from the Reds’ full-back’s best display.
Guardiola was speaking after Manchester City had beaten Liverpool 4-1 at Anfield and he suggested that Alexander-Arnold caused his side plenty of problems.
The England international bombed down the right for Jurgen Klopp’s side early on.
And Guardiola admits that the problems that Liverpool’s two full-backs were causing his team forced him into making a tactical switch.
“After the first 20 minutes where we could not control the width of Robertson and Alexander-Arnold, we adjusted our set-up and after the quality of our players did the rest,” he said.
Despite the praise from Guardiola, Alexander-Arnold’s display ended up being a poor one, rather than one to hail.
The Liverpool defender did make a bright opening, but after that his defensive frailties came to the fore.
Raheem Sterling enjoyed running at him more and more, and by the end of the game Alexander-Arnold was clearly second best in that battle.
Alexander-Arnold was dribbled past three times by the end of the game, and had a tackling success rate of just 63%.
While Alexander-Arnold did make three interceptions and three clearances, he also gave away three fouls and just never truly looked comfortable at any stage.
Even his attacking output wasn’t as eye-catching as it usually is.
The Liverpool full-back put in eight crosses, but only two found a teammate and it’s fair to say that Alexander-Arnold will be looking to improve in the coming weeks, both in an offensive and defensive sense, as Liverpool aim to get back to winning ways.
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