Trent Alexander-Arnold was substituted against Crystal Palace to manage his workload and is not suffering from a lack of confidence, according to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool were held to a 0-0 draw by Palace on Saturday night as their hopes of climbing the table towards the top four took a hit. The Reds had won their previous two Premier League games, but were short of quality in attack against Palace as Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah both struck the woodwork.
Alexander-Arnold endured a difficult night, with his error fortunate not to be punished when Jean-Philippe Mateta rattled the crossbar after he was dispossessed by Jeffrey Schlupp. The Liverpool right-back gave the ball away a staggering 20 times in the first half alone and was substituted in the 70th minute, with Klopp bringing on James Milner.
Asked in his post-match press conference about the decision, Klopp said: “Trent plays all the games for us and before the game we thought whether it would be one game too much for him, but he started. The reason was purely because of that.”
Klopp then gave an impassioned defence of Alexander-Arnold when asked if he was suffering from a lack of confidence. “No. In the few games we won he was one of our much, much, much, much better players,” he said.
“ Trent Alexander-Arnold, when he is not performing, everybody is talking about it. When he is performing nobody speaks about it apart from when he’s involved in goals. He set up super goals in the last two league games.
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“He’s okay. It’s just the amount of games. We took him off and he will have a day longer to rest and he will be fine again.”
Alexander-Arnold has played in all 23 of Liverpool’s Premier League games this season, starting 20. But he is far off his normally high standards, with just one goal and two assists in the league, compared to two goals and 12 assists in 32 appearances last season.
He was not the only Liverpool player who struggled at Selhurst Park. Naby Keita was given a rare start in midfield, but picked up a yellow card, leaving Klopp to feel like he had little choice but to withdraw him at half-time for Harvey Elliott.
“Naby had an early yellow card and then two fouls, not really bad fouls, but situations that took him out of the game and he couldn’t contact players any more,” he said. “That was the reason (he went off).”
Liverpool don’t have long to dwell on their poor performance at Palace, with another Premier League game against Wolves on the horizon on Wednesday. They then host Manchester United in what promises to be a huge game at Anfield next weekend.
