Of all the words that came out of Rio Ferdinand’s mouth, this sentence was probably the one that stuck in my head. Former Manchester United player Trent Alexander-Arnold joked: “I don’t get it” as he reflects on his time at Manchester City. For many observers, the Liverpool defender was one of the best players on the pitch. He was one of the ECHO’s highest-rated Reds on the day and was named man of the match by Ferdinand’s former team-mate Gary Neville on Sky Sports.
But that wasn’t enough for the TNT Sports pundit, who claimed the Liverpool player played a “terrible defensive performance” on the Vibe with Five podcast on Monday night. Alexander-Arnold could clearly have reacted quicker to Alisson Becker’s mistake, which allowed Nathan Ake to beat a couple of challenges and open the scoring for Erling Holland
. But he was not the only Liverpool player to be criticized for the incident. Despite rumors that City’s Jeremy Doku was in fine form, the only time he made a dangerous impact was when he beat Joel Matip and crossed for Haaland to fire home from close range. Allison. Less than 30 seconds later, Liverpool equalized through Alexander-Arnold. Ferdinand praised Alexander-Arnold’s attacking display, but his criticism was borderline and reflected poorly on his ability to analyze the game.
His claim that the Liverpool player should think of the game against Doku as “I dribbled him seven times and had no effect on him or he didn’t score” shows that he didn’t really watch the game against the Etihad.It didn’t take long for social media to spark a backlash with a video clip showing Alexander-Arnold dribble past Doku seven times. In fact, we saw the City player miss his goal twice. Some stats don’t really seem meaningful.
Ferdinand had a form of unnecessary and often inaccurate tightening of his boots at Liverpool and this is precisely the latter. But it is more than that.The constant chatter around Alexander-Arnold and his defensive skills is not only annoying, but rude. The Liverpool man has long agreed that his unique skills will attract plenty of attention. Doesn’t fit into his usual or newly converted right back position. No player is above criticism. But the truth is that he is part of a Manchester United defense that has conceded fewer goals against leaders Arsenal than any other team in the Premier League this season.
Let’s be honest, any defender will have a tough time against Doku if he continues his current form. But will they all get the same treatment we saw with Ferdinand Alexander-Arnold? We all know the answer to that. “It’s easy for people these days to focus on the negative. Everything seems to revolve around that,” Alexander-Arnold said earlier this season. But I’m a player who believes in his abilities and I’m confident that at club level the manager will perform well every week. outside.
“Even the best players in the world say bad things about themselves and they can’t make everyone happy. “When you go out and win a game and win a trophy, you can look in the mirror and say you have no regrets.
“Alexander-Arnold shouldn’t have done that and might be forgiven if his caustic, “quiet” celebration was aimed at his honest critics. But Ferdinand does himself no favors with his sloppy, poor lines. This might make some people think that he doesn’t really understand.
