Arne Slot has insisted that Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool at the end of the season won’t be a distraction in the Reds’ final two games of the campaign — saying he only brought on his number 66 this weekend because he thought it could be a way of changing the course of the second half.
Coming off the bench in the 67th minute of the 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Anfield, Alexander-Arnold was booed before, during and after his appearance. But Slot says he could still feature against Brighton and Crystal Palace, and he only brought the player on because he felt that would give Liverpool a better chance of winning the three points.
“I don’t think there is any possibility [that anything] can ‘take the edge’ off us winning this 20th league title,” Slot said in his post-match press conference. “I was here two weeks ago and there is nothing… maybe there can happen a few things — but those things would be much worse than what we are talking about — that could take the edge off us winning the league title.
“The thing I consider is I want to win a game of football. If we think we can win this one with Trent, I owe it to his teammates and to the fans, because they hired me to win as many games of football as possible.
“If I think there is a better chance of winning it with Trent, I will. If I think — which I don’t — that it is a distraction or whatever can happen for us not to play a good game of football, then I might, might, might make another decision.
“But I think Trent showed today why I brought him in. He was very close with a few fantastic crosses for us to win the game.”
(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)
Slot made clear in multiple interviews that every fan was allowed their own opinion on the situation. But he also insisted that it was a difficult decision for Alexander-Arnold to have made and a difficult situation for the player to find himself in.
“It is definitely difficult for him because I think he said himself how difficult it was to leave this football club,” Slot said. “And that is something that is important for us to hear as well, because we have to make it as difficult as possible.
“Fortunately for us, many stay, like Virgil [van Dijk] and Mo [Salah]. Trent made the decision to go. But it is the way you want to look at it; I don’t know, I haven’t asked him, but maybe he is positively surprised by how the reactions were today.
“I don’t know because I haven’t spoken to him, but it was clear they were mixed reactions so it wasn’t all negative. And as it went onwards, the moment he had to take a free-kick everybody was cheering for him to score — and he was close.
Learn more
“So I am not even sure if he has negative feelings about today. Maybe, maybe — but again, I haven’t spoken to him — it’s not even as negative as you think it is.”
Alexander-Arnold is expected to join Real Madrid imminently and Reds legend Jamie Carragher insisted on Sunday that his current teammates will be understanding of his decision.
“Teammates in the dressing room would rally around most people 99 per cent of the time,” Carragher said on Sky Sports. “Supporters of any football club, or Liverpool right now, probably wouldn’t want to hear this.
“But most players in that Liverpool dressing room probably want to play for Real Madrid. I’ve been in the dressing room, players left us to go to Barcelona, Real Madrid, so it’s really hard for supporters.
“Players don’t think like supporters. Players in the dressing room think ‘I’d love to play for Real Madrid’. They would.”
