Liverpool boss Arne Slot
Liverpool boss Arne Slot has been sent a warning
Paul Scholes has warned Liverpool they could be hugely hampered next season if Trent Alexander-Arnold does leave on a free transfer. Alexander-Arnold is one of three major stars who are out of contract at the end of the season and Real Madrid are keen to bring him to the Bernabeu.
Liverpool rejected an approach from the La Liga giants in the January transfer window, but will be powerless to stop the right-back from leaving in the summer if he wants to join Madrid. And Manchester United legend Scholes believes Alexander-Arnold's creativity will be difficult to replace.
Scholes highlighted how Liverpool struggled without him as they were beaten 2-1 by Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final, with Jarell Quansah deputising for the injured Alexander-Arnold. "I think Liverpool were missing Trent, which you don't normally say about a right-back," Scholes said on The Overlap Fan Debate, brought to you by Sky Bet.
"They missed his passes and the number of chances that he creates for Mo Salah throughout the game. That game showed the weakness of zonal defending, because Newcastle clipped every corner to Dan Burn. You felt the warning signs most of the way and though they had to change something."
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Scholes is not the only one who believes Alexander-Arnold was a huge miss for Liverpool at Wembley, with Micah Richards saying on The Rest Is Football podcast : "They just didn't have the same flow they usually have.
"And you know Trent on a big pitch - he's a great passer of the ball. Whether he's driving forward, whether he's getting on the ball in that space, making things happen. I just thought, from Liverpool's point of view, they really missed him."
It remains to be seen whether Alexander-Arnold will remain at Anfield next season, with Liverpool boss Arne Slot insisting back in January that the England international is "fully committed" to the club.
"I completely understand the question and why you ask it, but you already know the answer: these conversations I have never shared, not about Trent, not about any others, about what I talk to them about," Slot said.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
Paul Scholes believes Trent Alexander-Arnold will be a huge loss for Liverpool if he leaves the club next summer
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Image:
Visionhaus, Visionhaus/Getty Images)
"It was a conversation as many others we had, me and Trent, so let's leave it at that. I can tell you he is playing on Sunday and hopefully he brings the same performances as he brought in for the last half-year, because everybody saw how great a first half of the season he had, how much he is here, how much he wants to win here.
"I see him on the training ground every day working his a** off. He is fully committed to us and he will play on Sunday.
"If it would destabilise players at Liverpool if other people talk about them, then we would really have a problem because if you play at one of the biggest clubs in the world everybody is always - for 12 months long - talking about you, sometimes in relation to other clubs.
"That happens so many times for our players, so if that destabilises them then we really would have had a problem, not only now but in the last six months because there were some talks about our players in the last six months and I don't think it destabilised them at all."
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