Roy Keane provided a brutal demolition of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ability as a defender, after watching his player of the match performance against Finland and Ian Wright also shared his thoughts.
Speaking on ITV, the former Arsenal striker said: “I don’t think there’s much he done defensively where you can look at and think, ‘okay, yeah, that’s a position he’s probably going to play very often.’
“But from a creative point of view, you can see that Lee Carsley wants as many creative players in the deep end of his football team to create, and Trent is one of those he believes [in]…
“I can’t see it being something that will happen too frequently, but at the same time, offensively, his passes, it was his pass that led to Angel Gomes doing his bit of quality… Some great passing in the game.”
Fortunately for the Scouser, it’s only the opinion of Lee Carsley that currently matters and after starting all four games for the former Everton midfielder it’s no surprise to see that he also spoke after the most recent match to heap praise on our academy graduate.
Such is his attacking prowess, our vice captain was even revealed to be making bets with Jack Grealish on the pitch before he then whipped a wicked free kick into the top corner during the Nations League clash.
What more can Trent do?
Despite confusion around the decision to play our No.66 at left back before the match, suggestions he wasn’t tested doesn’t quite agree with the statistics that show he won 100% of his ground duels and wasn’t dribbled past once (via SofaScore).
If the 26-year-old had a bad game, then criticism from pundits can be somewhat expected but when he outperforms anyone else on the pitch, how can you then start giving him abuse?
It feels like some more lazy punditry about a young man who has won every trophy on offer in the game after eight years playing right back at the very top level – yet somehow he’s supposedly a bad defender.
You can watch Wright’s comments on Alexander-Arnold (from 1:00) via @itvfootball on X:
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