Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp hails ‘absolutely exceptional’ Trent Alexander-Arnold but insists it was not the ‘perfect’ display

The right-back scored during the Boxing Day victory at the King Power Stadium

Jack Rathborn
Friday 27 December 2019 11:14 GMT
Comments
Jurgen Klopp lost for words after Liverpool's Club World Cup win

Jurgen Klopp has hailed Trent Alexander-Arnold as “absolutely exceptional” after the Liverpool right-back’s stunning performance in the 4-0 win against Leicester.

The win puts the Reds 13 points clear of the Foxes, who have played a game more, while Manchester City are a further point behind having played the same number of matches.

Alexander-Arnold added the fourth at the King Power with a sumptuous strike from distance, but it was his cross that impressed Klopp most.

“I’m not too interested, to be honest,” Klopp said when quizzed on whether Alexander-Arnold was the best in the world in his position. “We’re not looking for one, let me say it like this.

“He played a really good game, but not a perfect game... it was decisive and helped us a lot. We know how important these crosses are for us, so that’s absolutely exceptional.

“But I can’t compare because at the moment I watch pretty much only Liverpool games so I don’t see the others.”

Klopp then described the “mad” moment of the match when the Reds continued to sprint despite the game being safe, with the German concerned about his side’s energy during the intense festive period.

“In the last 10 minutes, in this part of the season, you don’t have a situation often where the game is pretty much decided,” Klopp told Amazon Prime Video.

Alexander-Arnold celebrates his goal vs Leicester

“At 3-0 it was, at 4-0 it was 100%. I don’t know exactly when we scored, but I think there were 10 minutes to go plus extra-time, so 13 minutes.

“But we were still sprinting and I thought, ‘wow, how mad is that?’ So I was really shouting out there, just wanted to keep the ball, so Leicester didn’t attack us.

“There are a lot of things we have to improve – how we can manage the game in those situations, how we can play football, how we defended in the first half. There are so many things we have to work on.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in