Manchester United Legend Roy Keane Slams Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold Amid Real Madrid Interest
Roy Keane has slammed Trent Alexander-Arnold following his below-par performance for Liverpool in their 2-2 against Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday at Anfield.
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Alexander-Arnold has been in the news for the past few weeks following his ongoing contract situation at the club. The 26-year-old's current contract expires at the end of the season and as it stands, he will leave for nothing in the summer.
Real Madrid have been strongly linked with a move for the Reds vice-captain as the La Liga giants saw their approach to sign the right-back rejected on New Year’s Eve. Alexander-Arnold is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with overseas clubs.
Alexander-Arnold was in action for Arne Slot's side, however, he endured a difficult afternoon before being replaced by Conor Bradley late on with Roy Keane claiming his performance against the Red Devils will lead to a Tranmere move.
Keane told Sky Sports: “We talk about how brilliant Trent is going forward but Trent’s defending today, my goodness. It’s like schoolboy stuff. There’s talk about him going to Real Madrid, but the way he’s defending he’ll be going to Tranmere Rovers after this. Got to do better.”
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Arne Slot, speaking at his post-match press conference leapt to the defence of Trent Alexander-Arnold, disclosing that he was not affected by the ongoing speculation about his future.
“I don’t believe in those things but I think it’s nine out of 10 people will tell you it affected him,” Slot said. “But I am one of the 10 that tells you that I don’t think that affected him.
“What affected him is that he had to play Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot which are two starters for Portugal. Great, great, great players. We have a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota, and he’s not even playing for Portugal - mostly he’s not playing - so that tells you how much quality United has.
“And if these players set themselves to a game, and that is what United do once in a while, then it’s very difficult to play against them.
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“No, it wasn’t that he had to play on his own against those two because Ryan (Gravenberch) was nine out of 10 times close to that situation. But, he was many times faced in a 1v1 situation against those players.
“I always tell you how difficult it is for the other team to be in a 1v1 situation against Mo Salah, or against Cody Gakpo, Lucho Diaz and all the other ones we have. And these players also have special qualities.
“I think that is more important for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than it is the rumours that were there in the week.
“That’s my opinion, probably everybody is going to tell you it had to do with the rumours but my opinion is different.
“But it was clear that Trent had some difficult moments, as we as a team had. But that is also for Trent not the first time. I think, for the majority of the games he played for this club, they were very, very, very good.
“But I can't believe if people tell me that he has never played a bad game for this club. That probably has happened before, and mostly I think against quality players like United have - especially in the positions he had to face.”
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LFC Transfer Room Football Correspondent. Covered the fortunes of Liverpool for the past three years. Follow Joseph on X (formerly Twitter) @joseph_agbobli