ITV Sport commentator Roy Keane provided a critical evaluation of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defense only minutes after the Liverpool star scored in England’s 3-1 victory against Finland.
Roy Keane ripped into Trent Alexander-Arnold, despite his amazing goal in England’s victory against Finland, stating he ‘can’t believe how poor’ the Liverpool star’s defending is.
Interim head coach Lee Carsley used the 26-year-old Reds defender in an unusual left-back position in Helsinki. Alexander-Arnold has been a consistent performer in Carsley’s four games as manager, albeit the choice to put him on the left side raised some questions before to the game.
Alexander-Arnold scored a superb free kick in the second half to extend England’s advantage, and they went on to win comfortably 3-1. But he was savaged after the game by Keane, who gave a gloomy appraisal of his defence.
Keane and Ian Wright were the first to hail his magnificent free-kick, with the Irishman telling ITV: “Great technique, you can see his standing foot, technique is fantastic.” No opportunity for the goalie. I’m typically severe on goalkeepers, but I’ll go it easy on this one.”But he immediately tore into the Liverpool vice-captain, saying of his entire performance: “You give time to Trent, because his decision making and passing quality is fantastic, but I can’t believe how bad he is defensively, and against better teams he’ll be punished.”
Wright was more optimistic. He stated: “I don’t think he did much defensively to make you say, ‘OK, that’s the position he’s going to play.'” However, in terms of creativity, Lee Carsley wants as many innovative players as possible on his football squad. I don’t see that happening very regularly.”
Keane also took aim at Alexander-Arnold in the build-up to Sunday’s encounter, when he and Wright were asked for their thoughts on his surprising inclusion at left-back, a position he has never played in before.
Referring to his performance in Thursday night’s dismal 2-1 defeat to Greece. Keane pointed out: “If you saw him the other night defending, it looked like he’d never played right-back before!”Despite his regularly great Premier League performances for Liverpool, Alexander-Arnold has been reduced to a supporting position for his nation due to Kyle Walker’s quality and endurance.
Gary Neville earlier cautioned that if England failed to capitalise on Alexander-Arnold’s extraordinary potential in the coming years, they would be deeply disappointed.
“I think it works for now,” Neville remarked of Alexander-Arnold’s performance in midfield on ITV during Euro 2024. “The one thing I would say is that if Trent Alexander-Arnold does not play international football, we may look back in five, six, seven, or eight years and be disappointed with how we treated him.
“He is unquestionably a world-class player in his field. He’s special in terms of delivery and set-piece play. We’re discussing Trent Alexander-Arnold here.
“No one disputes that he is extraordinary. Very special. And we’ve mismanaged special players for 20 to 40 years. We’re trying to get him on the squad, so let’s see how things go.”
