Liverpool put in an excellent performance against Manchester City, earning its first league win at the Etihad since 2015. But there has still been some focus on a potential Trent Alexander-Arnold problem, one picked up last month by Roy Keane.
Going forward, Alexander-Arnold was a critical part of Liverpool's efforts. He played an important pass in the lead-up to one of the goals, and continually flipped the ball over Pep Guardiola's high line and into areas where Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz and Curtis Jones could chase it.
Defensively, he ultimately did his job as well. Man City created very little of note, and was only really allowed to have the ball in areas dictated on Liverpool's terms.
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Even so, the game plan was unlikely to have included Alexander-Arnold being dribbled past 12 times by Jeremy Doku. It's a number at which Liverpool can afford to shrug its shoulders, with the winger completely unable to do anything with the ball after beating his full-back, but the extent to which the flank was targeted points to a potential problem in the run-in.
If nothing else, his teammates are certainly being made to work hard to help him out. In one clip doing the rounds, Salah tracks back, and twice succeeds where the defender failed in tackling Doku.
Two things are true: Alexander-Arnold's defensive issues have always been overstated, and his defending has come on leaps and bounds in recent years. But to this we might add a third statement — one-versus-one duels are never going to be the absolute strongest part of his game.
Certainly, Arne Slot will not want to see another match where the vice-captain is bypassed with such clockwork regularity. He needs his full-backs to defend, as evidenced by his late introduction of Jarell Quansah after Alexander-Arnold had failed to track back with enough vigor.
The Premier League picture is looking rosy, although Liverpool still cannot afford to coast. But where this vulnerability at right-back may come to a head is the Champions League.
Next up is PSG, who certainly have players capable of causing a problem on the flanks. Even before factoring in questions about where his head is at amid Real Madrid links, will Alexander-Arnold be up to the task?
"It's too easy, just a couple of balls over the top," Keane concluded after a poor Alexander-Arnold display against Manchester United last month. "Trent's defending, it's like schoolboy stuff — talking about going to Real Madrid, he'll go to Tranmere Rovers after this."
A defensive performance like the ones he put in against the Manchester clubs may well be punished by the likes of Bradley Barcola and Ousmane Dembele. And if Liverpool does progress, Real Madrid is on the same side of the draw, awaiting in a potential semi-final.
Would Slot be confident playing Alexander-Arnold in that fixture? His future would dominate the conversation, and amid all that, he'd have to put in a performance against Vinicius Junior or Rodrygo.
He may well come out on top — there's a reason Real Madrid is so keen to sign him, and Keane certainly overstated the problem. But Liverpool and Slot will at least have an awareness of this potential vulnerability as it looks to claim two of the game's biggest honors over the next few months.
