Trent inspired by Gerrard’s heroics for United crunch
HE doEs his best to suppress a smile but it is pointless. The game of games is almost here for Trent AlexanderArnold and his enthusiasm is bursting out. ‘This is a lot different from a normal saturday afternoon,’ says the young Liverpool defender. ‘I knew that from growing up in the stands. You can feel the tension — there is more hostility.’ Alexander-Arnold recalls going crazy as a starry-eyed 10-year-old watching on television as Fernando Torres and steven Gerrard inspired a 4-1 blitz of Manchester United at old Trafford in 2009. ‘It feels like it was only yesterday,’ he says. ‘The 3-0 when Gerrard scored two penalties (March 2014) was also special. ‘They are normally tight games. It will be the same on saturday.’ In a flash, Alexander-Arnold has gone from animated fan to part of the plot. We are in the humble surrounds of Andorra’s Estadi Comunal, where he has just completed 10 days with England’s Under-21 squad. Until fairly recently, this was how his professional world looked — a tiny venue and a low-key match in front of a few hundred spectators. Then he was lifted from academy football in January when Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp plunged him into the old Trafford cauldron. Alexander-Arnold went into that 1-1 draw as a virtual unknown, but he will square up to United tomorrow having proved himself one of English football’s most precocious talents. He has signed a new long-term deal, scored a brilliant goal in the Champions League against Hoffenheim and won two Under-21 caps — a sequence of high points that could lead some 19-year-olds to develop an inflated sense of their own worth. But Alexander-Arnold is different, saying: ‘You’ve got to take it in your stride. You can’t just think about the good moments because there will be bad moments, too. You have to stay level-headed. I don’t ever think: “oh, the last two months have been unbelievable!”.
‘I want it to be an unbelievable year, two years, three years. You can’t be satisfied with two months at the start of a season.
‘You set goals and then try to fulfil them.
‘The manager has ensured that I’ve stayed grounded. He has made sure the last two months have not gone to my head and that I am always thinking about the future.’
When he travelled to Manchester in January, Alexander-Arnold was blissfully unaware that Klopp was preparing to give him the ultimate challenge.
‘I knew from going to games at Anfield what the rivalry was like but I found out (what it was really like) at old Trafford,’ he says.
‘I heard a few shouts (at me), put it that way!
‘When I went over to take the first throw-in, I was half-wondering whether they were shouting at me! I expected it but not to the level it was.
‘You know then — from that intensity — how much is riding on it.’
Alexander-Arnold did not bat an eyelid, though, just as he has remained unfazed since joining up with the first-team squad.
There will be no surprises when he is again charged with guarding Liverpool’s right flank tomorrow, and that means no sleepless night.
‘I’ll be ready,’ says Alexander-Arnold, whose uncle — John Alexander — is United club secretary.
‘I’m not too bad in terms of struggling to sleep before big games. You also have to make sure you don’t get too excited as you could go and make a bad challenge early on.
‘You have to get that balance right and make sure you treat the opposition with respect because they are not some low team.
‘You have to go out and do a job.’