Arne Slot says ‘very good’ Liverpool player didn’t work hard enough vs Man Utd

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Liverpool are still flying high at the top of the Premier League right now, but the Reds have had something of a blip recently.

Indeed, Liverpool have now won just one of their last four matches.

The Reds have dropped points in each of their last two league games, and their performance against Manchester United a couple of weeks ago wasn’t good enough.

Trent Alexander-Arnold was criticised after the United game, and speaking on Between the Lines, Arne Slot has now shared his verdict on the full-back’s showing.

Indeed, according to Slot, Alexander-Arnold is a brilliant defender, but, at times, he can lack effort, and he pointed towards the Manchester United game as an example of that.

Trent Alexander-Arnold didn’t work hard enough vs Man Utd

Slot spoke about Alexander-Arnold and his defensive abilities.

The manager says that he’s shown Alexander-Arnold that he can improve defensively if he works hard enough, but he notes that the full-back didn’t actually work hard enough vs Man Utd.

“His willingness to improve. When we started working together I emphasised his defensive work. He had to improve a bit at defending and I’ve shown him he’s able to do so if he puts enough effort in,” Slot said.

“Sometimes, like in the United game, which was an exception this season, it seems to lack a bit of effort in some moments, but if he’s on top of his game he’s a very good defender as well. His thing as well is consistency, he’s been at this club quite a long time, sometimes he plays games like it’s one of the 200 games he’s played, we’ve worked on it and we’ve seen the progression he’s made.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold stats vs Manchester United

Alexander-Arnold had a stinker against Manchester United, there’s no two ways about it.

The full-back was just off his game, and, interestingly, Slot believes that’s due to a lack of effort.

The stats show that Alexander-Arnold wasn’t good on the day.

It’s strange that Slot believes Alexander-Arnold didn’t put the effort in vs United. After all, if there’s any game a local player should be up for it’s against Manchester United at Anfield.

Who knows? Trent Alexnader-Arnold has been linked to Real Madrid recently, so perhaps those rumours got to him a bit and affected his performance here.

Alexander-Arnold looked a lot better against Nottingham Forest in midweek, so hopefully, this United game was just a minor blip and the defender will be back to his best before too long.

As Slot says, Alexander-Arnold has been much better defensively this season, and that United game was an exception.