Roy Keane just couldn’t help himself when it came to peddling a tired, cliched and frankly lazy narrative about one Liverpool player.
The ex-Manchester United captain has been a long-standing critic of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defensive abilities, even taking a potshot at the 26-year-old on the night that he curled in a delightful free kick in England’s win over Finland earlier this month.
Keane sarcastically slams Trent’s defending
Speaking on the latest episode of Stick to Football, the Sky Sports pundit once again rounded on the Liverpool vice-captain over his performance in the Reds’ 2-1 win over Chelsea last Sunday.
With a level of sarcasm which wasn’t exactly difficult to detect, Keane said: “Trent? Everyone thought Trent was that brilliant defensively; the manager took him off with 10 minutes to go. Brilliant, isn’t it? Anyway, that’s another point.
“With 10 minutes to go you’re 2-1 up and you take him off – that’s a great message. Yeah, we really trust you defensively.”
Time for Keane to give it a rest
It’s quite indicative of Keane’s stubborn agenda against Trent that prominent journalists such as David Lynch and James Pearce who cover every Liverpool match have both praised the right-back’s performances defensively this season.
If the ever-opinionated Irishman actually watched Reds games as a matter of routine, he’ll have noticed that Arne Slot has frequently substituted the 26-year-old late on in matches as an energy conservation measure and not an indictment of his performances.
If the Dutchman weren’t happy with how the England international was defending, would he then have started every Premier League and Champions League game so far this term, especially when we’ve a superb alternative in Conor Bradley to call upon.
Here’s a few facts for Keane to digest in relation to Trent’s defending against Chelsea last Sunday – he won five duels and made four tackles and four clearances, keeping Jadon Sancho so quiet that the latter was substituted at half-time for Pedro Neto. The Blues wingers had one shot between them in the entire match (Sofascore).
That should all debunk the pundit’s lazy narrative about the Liverpool vice-captain, although we will say one thing: if the 53-year-old were managing the Reds, the Scouser’s contract saga would’ve ended by now as he’d already have been sent packing to Real Madrid. Thankfully it’s Slot and not Keane who’s in the Anfield dugout.