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I think there are valid arguments to make about Alexander-Arnold’s defensive capabilities, but yesterday Utd were concentrating a lot of their attacks down the Liverpool right and he was getting virtually zero support from any of his teammates. Expecting him to single-handedly defend against two or more attackers is expecting a lot.
andyp-
Utd were concentrating a lot of their attacks down the Liverpool right and he was getting virtually zero support from any of his teammates.
I think there's a lot in this, and I don't think Slot's tactics helped. He put Jota on so they were basically playing a 4-2-4 and Jota just wasn't doing the same defensive work as Jones. The midfield was just too stretched which meant with just Gravenberch and McAllister they couldn't shuffle over to cover the flanks, especially with the outside forwards doing little defensive work. I thought it was really strange, other teams have showed if you play a connected three in midfield you can over-run this United side. Fwiw United played the same midfield as they did against Bournemouth when they got destroyed. The difference was the defence looked to be more in tune with the tactical system.
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Is fair but defensive weaknesses have been targeted for quite some time eg Vinicius Jr strolling in on his blind side to score the Champions League winner (sticks in my mind as an interview in The Guardian published the same day had TAA saying “seeing things others don’t”).
Don’t want to have a downer on him but his considerable strengths don’t offset these fundamental weaknesses enough.
Prole.
Big_Ted
Trent Alexander-Arnold is a curious player - he is clearly (very) good at football but not particularly good in any position whether as a right back (where, too often, he either cannot or will not do the necessary defensive work) or in midfield (where he has neither the dynamism or positional discipline). Given he's played at a high level for many years under top quality coaches it doesn't appear that he will (can?) change. Then again, he's still clearly a quality player, quite the conundrum.
Maybe his skills will be better suited to the style of football in La Liga rather than in the Premier League?