Arne Slot has told Trent Alexander-Arnold that his ability to maintain “100%” concentration holds the key to his improvement as a defender.
The Liverpool vice-captain outlined an ambition to become “the defender that no one wants to come up against in Europe” during talks with the club’s new head coach in pre-season. Speaking after Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, when he was directly involved in the 100th goal of his Liverpool career, the 25-year-old claimed criticism of his defensive attributes was “harsh” but said he was intent on improving. Slot believes he has identified how.
“It’s difficult for me to judge how it has been in the years before but the only thing I know is we are talking about a player that won the Champions League and the league title so it’s clear to me that he has been a good defender all his life,” Slot said. “But because he is so special with the ball, the main emphasis goes on him doing special things with the ball.
“I think with him it is not about if he is capable of doing things, it’s more can his concentration rate constantly be in 100% focus? So this is what we talk about a lot, that he has to stay active in every situation of the game, even if the ball is further away from him. But it’s not that we or I taught him to defend in the last three months; he’s won the league and he’s won the Champions League. It’s just getting him to understand all of what is necessary to play the best possible game.”
Liverpool, who host West Ham in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday, have kept four clean sheets in five Premier League matches. While encouraged by the defensive record, Slot believes his team have had a favourable fixture list and it is premature to draw conclusions.
“The defence has been really good, although I think in the last game we needed our goalkeeper too many times to keep the clean sheet,” he said. “Yesterday I looked at the league table and [thought]: ‘OK, which teams did we face until now and which position are they? Are they in the top half or the bottom?’ I think all of them are in the bottom half of the table, so you have to take that into account.
“There are a lot of difficult teams we still have to face. After West Ham tomorrow we go for two difficult away games [against Wolves and Crystal Palace] – let’s see where we are then when it comes to conceding goals because maybe the fixture schedule has been ‘nice’ to us when you see the table. And from the five games we have played three times at home, so that helps as well.”
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Caoimhín Kelleher will again deputise for the injured Alisson, who may return from a muscle problem at Wolves on Saturday. Trey Nyoni, the talented 17-year-old midfielder, could feature in the cup tie.