“I watched every minutes of his action against Liverpool and I was so impressed”: Man City coach Pep Guardiola heaps praise on Man United’s player who was just too good against Liverpool
Manchester United came from behind to secure a 2-2 draw with Liverpool FC in the Premier League on Sunday night.
Arne Slot highlighted the performances of both Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot as key factors behind Trent Alexander-Arnold’s poor display in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United.
The 26-year-old was arguably the worst player on the pitch for either side at Anfield, but lasted until the 86th minute before he was replaced by young full-back Conor Bradley. Alexander-Arnold didn’t win a single duel during his time on the pitch, a feat Bradley managed within just a minute of being introduced into the match.
Alexander-Arnold’s poor performance raised questions of whether intense transfer interest from Real Madrid has distracted him, but after the match, his manager cited the brilliance of two United players as a key factor behind his quiet display.
Asked if he felt most of United’s threat came down Liverpool’s righthand side, he told Sky Sports: “Yeah, I think they did. That is also due to Bruno Fernandes, who is a very, very good player and he played a very good game. United have shown many times if things are really difficult for them, they can show up.
“They did cause us some problems, Dalot was a threat as well on the left side. We are talking about two starters of the Portugal national team and that is why. It is not always easy to prevent them from getting into dangerous situations, which happened a few times. Unfortunately, that led to two goals.”
When further pressed on the poor performance from the Liverpool right-back, he added: “Trent has played mostly very good games for the club. Today was not his best game but that had to do with them as well. Sometimes Ryan [Gravenberch] was not close enough to him so it was a two-on-one situation. I would put it more on the quality of [Diogo] Dalot and Bruno Fernandes.”
