Arne Slot insists speculation over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future did not impact his performance against Manchester United.
The Liverpool right-back endured a difficult afternoon in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Anfield. That comes after Real Madrid ramped up their interest in Alexander-Arnold, who is out of contract at the end of the season and able to sign a pre-contract agreement with foreign clubs.
Last week, Liverpool rebuffed an approach from the Spanish giants to sign him in January.
“I don’t believe in those things,” Slot said. “I think nine out of 10 people will say it (the transfer speculation) affected him but I’m one of the 10 that tells you it didn’t affect him.
“What affected him is he had to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot – two starters for Portugal who are great players.
“We have a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota and he’s mostly not playing for Portugal so that tells you how much quality United have.
“If these players set themselves to a game, that is what United do once in a while, it is very difficult to play against them.
“It is more difficult for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than it is the rumours in the week. Probably everyone is going to tell you it had to do with the rumours but my opinion is different.”
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Alexander-Arnold was booked in the 83rd minite for hauling back Fernandes before being replaced by Conor Bradley late on.
Slot added: “Trent was many times faced in a one-v-one situation.
“I always tell you how difficult it is for the other team to be in a one-v-one situation against Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo and Lucho Diaz.
“I think you could see it in the last 10 to 15 minutes. In the first 70 to 80 minutes, they played almost every ball long but after the 2-2, the game was completely open and then you could see they had even better quality when they played the ball on the ground.
“It was clear Trent had some difficult moments as we as a team had but that’s not for Trent the first time.
“I think the majority of the games he’s played for this club have been very good but I can’t believe it if people tell me he has never played a bad game for this club before. That’s probably happened before and mostly against quality players like United have, especially in the positons he has to face.”
(Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)
