TRENT DRIVEN BY REAL HEARTACHE
Alexander-Arnold will use his Champions League final agony as motivation insisting: THAT HEARTBREAK MAKES YOU STRONGER
LIVERPOOL teenager Trent Alexander-Arnold will go to the World Cup having already experienced heartbreak this year.
But the feeling of despair after the Champions League final in Kiev will also be the 19-year-old’s motivation at the World Cup.
Alexander-Arnold’s graphic and emotional description of what it felt like to lose to Real Madrid last month is also etched in his memory to help make him stronger for the experience.
“When I walked down the stage with my silver medal past the cup, obviously you cannot describe what the feeling is like, but it is the closest thing to heartbreak I have ever had,” said Alexander-Arnold.
“I was just really disappointed. I felt like I let everyone down and I am sure the rest of the lads felt like that as well.
“You know the fans and everyone wanted us to win it – that was the point of travelling over there and everyone wanted to bring the trophy back, but it feels like you have got so far and you are so close to winning it, but it slipped through our fingers.
“In a final – and I would say in a knockout tournament, it is not really about your own performance, it is about the team. So I would rather have had a stinker and got sent off and win it than play well and lose.
“For a lot of the players it was our first time in the Champions League and it was a rise to the top – it was almost as if, ‘This can’t be true, in our first season we are going all the way,’ and right at the last hurdle, we fell.
“But you are going to get setbacks throughout a season.
“The Manchester United game [a 2-1 defeat and at fault for one of Marcus Rashford’s goals], that was a huge setback for me and you have to bounce back from them.
“Personally and as a team, we all bounced back from that game against United. It is character building. Those days make you stronger.”
It is little wonder with that sort of maturity that Alexander-Arnold has become such a remarkable story, his rise from promising youngster to mainstay of the Champions League campaign pushing him into the World Cup squad. He made his senior debut in the friendly against Costa Rica at Leeds (below) and is now in a battle with Kieran Trippier for the right wingback slot.
England boss Gareth Southgate stresses he is not worried about thrusting the teenager into the starting line-up and Alexander-Arnold says he is not going to Russia just to make up the numbers.
Last year he pulled out of an England Under-19s squad to concentrate on Liverpool and his decision was backed by Southgate – and it has paid off.
He said: “I want to go there and play and I will try every day in training to show the manager I am good enough to play and hopefully work my way into the team.
“I am not sure of his plans or if he has picked any team, but in my mind it is still up for grabs and I am going to work every day to try to show him that I am good enough to play.
“I wanted to focus on becoming firstchoice right-back at Liverpool then push on from there and I thought I am going to need the rest.
“The Under-19s tournament cut into a bit of pre-season time that I thought was valuable and time that I needed to be in and around the Liverpool team to show the manager I was still improving and still had the hunger to get better every day.
“If I am away with England at that time, he cannot really see that. Now obviously it has paid off and the vision always was to play for the seniors and hopefully that will come true.”