Alan Shearer and Paul Merson rave about Trent Alexander-Arnold | OneFootball

Former great Arsenal player turned popular football pundit Paul Merson has showered praise on Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The 22-year-old has progressed from Liverpool’s youth academy and has established himself as one of the best right-backs in the world.

The right-back hasn’t been at his best form this season (compared to previous seasons) and was recently dropped by Gareth Southgate from the England squad that sparked debates among the fans and pundits.

He was poor against Real Madrid during Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat in the Champions League last week, but he responded sharply with a solid performance against Aston Villa at the weekend.

The youngster was solid in defence and scored a superb injury-time winner at Anfield, earning his side all three points.

Merson wrote for Sky Sports:

“But fair play to Trent Alexander-Arnold the other day, he gets a lot of stick about his positional play, but he is a victim of his own success because he has been so good that when he has a couple of bad games, everybody says, ‘oh my god…’

“But what I like about him is he keeps on going and going, he never hides, goes to Arsenal and puts in one of the balls of the season, it was mind blowing, like David Beckham. And then he scores the winner against Villa when he could easily have said, ‘I’ll sit on the halfway line, I do not need this coming to me with all the stick I’m getting.’

“But he does not and fair play, I like that and have a lot of respect for him doing that as it is very easy to hang out and say, ‘I do not want to do this, what happens if I balloon a ball into the stands…?”

Former great Newcastle striker turned popular football pundit Alan Shearer has also praised Alexander-Arnold, and included him in his Premier League team of the week.

He notes that the Liverpool local lad “came up with the decisive moment of quality just when Liverpool needed it. That’s a big goal in the top-four fight.”

SL View

Merson is absolutely spot on here with his assessment. Alexander-Arnold is still young, and he is working on improving every aspect of his game.

He is a terrific passer and crosser of the ball, and equally outstanding with his set-piece skills. He needs to work on the defensive side of the game, no doubt, but his superior qualities outweigh his flaws.