Trent Alexander-Arnold waxed lyrical about his manager before Real Madrid’s visit to his former club, but things did not go as planned for the visitors.
Liverpool hosted Real Madrid in a Champions League battle and it did not disappoint. One of the biggest talking points was Trent Alexander-Arnold return to Anfield, after he controversially ditched his boyhood club for the La Liga giants in the summer.
In the end, the Englishman did not even start for the away side, although he did come off the bench during the second half, when he was met with a chorus of boos.
Alexander-Arnold has revealed he will not celebrate if he scored against Liverpool and he was pictured outside Anfield paying tribute to Diogo Jota the night before the game.
Despite these respectable actions, there was plenty of hostility towards the defender on Tuesday night. However, the right-back had already accepted this possible outcome and continued to speak fondly of his old team.
During an interview with Prime Video Sport, Alexander-Arnold discussed witnessing the quality of Steven Gerrard and his current manager Xabi Alonso, when he was a boy.
He said: “In the first conversation that we had I said watching him [Alonso], watching Gerrard, those two specifically growing up. Watching them I realised that passing is an art.”
According to the 27-year-old, a good pass reveals a particular sound which can be recognised by the best playmakers in the game.
Alexander-Arnold has claimed that this was the case with Gerrard and Alonso, two players who knew how to hit a clean pass.
“When them two pass the ball it sounded different and I won’t say anything too bad if people don’t get this, but you can hear a good pass.
“It’s not so much seeing it, it’s the sound when the boot strikes the ball, it sounds different if it’s clean, if it’s a pure strike of the ball. It sounds a lot different to if you don’t hit it as clean. It’s hard to describe it, it’s one of those like if you know how it sounds, then you know.”
Alexander-Arnold might have expected to play under a Liverpool legend during his time in Merseyside, but fate decided this would come in a completely different league and country. He is happy to be learning from Alonso, the player he grew up watching and apparently the Spaniard plays an active role in Real Madrid’s training sessions.
“He [Alonso] was an idol of mine, he was someone that I looked up to, practiced a lot of the passes that I’ve seen him play, still now in training when he likes to show off from time to time. It’s incredible.
“He loves to get involved, he absolutely loves to get involved. He could [still play]. I think deep down he still wants to because he likes to get involved in training. But you can just see the game intelligence and the way he sees the game is in a pure form.”
Alonso would have been hoping to continue his teams’ 100 per cent winning record in the Champions League this season with a victory over Liverpool, but this was not to be.
The Reds had returned to winning ways the weekend prior to the match and backed this up with a 1-0 win over Real Madrid, thus claiming all three points.
The Spanish giants might have won the all-important Champions League finals between the teams in 2018 and 2022, but November 4 belonged to Liverpool.
