Former Liverpool and England shot-stopper David James has urged the Reds gaffer, Jurgen Klopp, to give some time off regular first-team involvement to Trent Alexander-Arnold on the back of a series of misfiring performances put out by the international full-back.
Arnold put out yet another stale showing in defence during Liverpool FC’s 1-0 defeat at St. Mary’s on Monday, with the right-back being held responsible for gifting the Saints a chance to score their only goal of the game through Danny Ings in the second minute.
According to James, as reported by Goal, the 22-year-old Arnold needs to be dropped by Klopp for the upcoming set of fixtures for the Merseyside giants in the hope of the England international working his way back to rediscover his earlier form on the pitch and fight for his spot in the Liverpool FC starting eleven.
“I don’t like criticising players for any other reason than what you see, but my understanding is 38 giveaways – the most by a Premier League player this season.
“This is an interesting player. He came into the Liverpool side young, was forced into the side more than by choice, and he hit the ground running.
“He got loads of plaudits and was an integral part of Liverpool’s success in the Premier League, Champions League, World Club Championship and has represented England.
“He’s not a bad player, but at the same time he hasn’t had any respite. He had the injury earlier in the season but young players are going to have off form. Unfortunately for Trent he is going through that.
“Maybe the injury he picked up against Manchester City, calf strain, he hasn’t been used to anything else other than playing for Liverpool, and then an injury takes him into a different space. I don’t think he has recovered from that mentally or in his normal life habit.
“What you don’t want is to have a bad run of form that results in losses, and this was a loss. Jurgen Klopp is very honest in his assessment and stopped short of saying Trent could’ve kicked the ball away [for Danny Ings’ goal]. But he brought him off, which was a surprise in some eyes.
23.8% – Trent Alexander-Arnold has lost possession of the ball with 23.8% of his touches in Premier League games this season (327/1372); of all outfielders with at least 500 touches, 61 players have lost possession more often in relation to their number of touches. Mythbusters. pic.twitter.com/a7ZCy1V16j
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 5, 2021
An interesting stat had come up in the aftermath of Liverpool FC’s loss to Southampton earlier this week, one which indicated that Arnold had given away the ball a total of 38 times over the game’s proceedings for his time on the pitch, a new record in English top-flight football this season.
