Trent Alexander-Arnold was back to his best as Liverpool beat Accrington Stanley 4-0 in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, with the stand-in captain running the show
After what was, even by his own rarefied standards, the sweetest of strikes, Trent Alexander-Arnold posed in front of the Sir Kenny Dalglish stand, his arms outstretched, his head knowingly nodding.
This is what I do. This is my calling card. This is why I’m holding out for the big bucks, whoever might pay them. At times, it felt like Alexander-Arnold, who took the armband in the absence of Virgil van Dijk, was running his own benefit game, organising an exhibition for his own skillset.
And although Roy Keane recently suggested League Two football was the natural level for Trent’s defensive capabilities, those were never going to be tested against a clearly limited Accrington Stanley.
Instead, the England right-back could roam free, sometimes going full-Glenn Hoddle in the middle of the park, sometimes making an extra attacking body. William Crellin had already produced one fine save to deny Alexander-Arnold before being given no chance by the Liverpool skipper’s beauty.
In the technical area, there was no histrionic celebration from Arne Slot, only smiling acknowledgement of what he already knew. Alexander-Arnold is an elite player.
If making Alexander-Arnold the centrepiece of this occasion was in any way intended to encourage Liverpool fans to show their love and support for him after the nightmare against Manchester United, it did not work to any obvious extent.
Understandably, there was loud appreciation for his goal and a fair few got to their feet when Slot showed Alexander-Arnold to the warmth of the dressing-room after an hour. But there was hardly a stadium-wide Trent love-in. This was hardly the start of a mass clamour for him to stay.
There is almost a tangible acceptance around Anfield that the odds are now in favour of the player moving to Madrid. And his latest goal-scoring moment was just a reminder of what the club will miss if he does decide to join Jude Bellingham.
Few can strike a ball quite as well as Alexander-Arnold can. Of his 21 goals for Liverpool, 16 have come from outside the penalty area. It is a threat that will be hard to replace. If Darwin Nunez had that purity of strike, he would be unstoppable.
It doesn’t matter who they come against, Nunez can always waste a chance or three. In fact, such is the frequency of his misses, it is hard not to come to that old chestnut of a conclusion that the Uruguayan is a scorer of great goals but not a great goal scorer.
But Slot is spot-on when he suggests Nunez has other attributes that go some way to atoning for his lack of composure in front of goal, a suggestion given credence by a nice assist for the Diogo Jota opener.
But to be fair, Nunez was up against a defence that – despite a scoreline that was given gloss by second half strikes from substitutes Jayden Danns and Federico Chiesa – was generally well-organised in the face of the different challenges posed by a much-changed Liverpool side.
And Rio Ngumoha, Liverpool’s youngest-ever starter at 16 years and 135 days, certainly poses a different challenge. He is a throwback winger, for sure, never happy to beat a man once if he can beat the same man twice.
In common with every set of supporters up and down the land, Liverpool fans love to see young talent being given a chance. But Ngumoha is a bit of an unusual case. He is off the academy’s production line – just not the Liverpool academy’s production line, having been poached from Chelsea a few days after his 16th birthday.
Not a lot came off for Ngumoha but he is a prospect, that is for sure. Whether Alexander-Arnold will be around to see how Ngumoha develops still remains to be seen. And if he is not, this showboating cameo will go down as another reminder of why he will be missed.
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