Steve Nicol has admitted that he is concerned that Trent Alexander-Arnold will have to mark Real Madrid’s Vinicus Jr on Tuesday night.
The La Liga giants travel to Anfield for the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 in what is a repeat of last season’s final in which the Brazilian scored the only goal of the game.
Liverpool and Real picked up important 2-0 away wins in their respective league matches yesterday to ensure they go into next week’s clash with plenty of confidence.
“No thanks,” Nicol told ESPN (via The Boot Room) when asked how he felt about Alexander-Arnold taking on Vinicius Jr.
“Listen, Alexander-Arnold today, when Saint-Maximin walked in because there were only ten men left, he must have thought ‘thank you very much’, because he had no idea what was going on.
“And that’s against a guy who can be good. The difference between Saint-Maximin and Vini, sorry, they are a world apart.
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“He knows what he’s doing. Vini has the confidence and football brain to take advantage of situations against Alexander-Arnold.
“If he gets as much of the ball as he did in this game against Osasuna, then there could be problems.”
Carlo Ancelotti’s side needed two late goals to pick up all three points against Osasuna, while it was two early goals from the Reds that allowed them to inflict their second league defeat of the season on Newcastle.
Alexander-Arnold recorded a sublime assist for Darwin Nunez in the North East and made a decent change defensively as Jurgen Klopp’s side kept consecutive clean sheets in the league for the first time since October.
We certainly feel that the Scouser receive too much criticism regarding the defensive side of their game and it’s clear that we are a much weaker team when they are not in the starting XI.
Hopefully he can silence his critics once again on Tuesday night to ensure we bring a positive result to the Bernabeu for the second leg next month.
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