Arne Slot: ‘Biggest compliment Trent could get was the reaction of the fans’

Arne Slot was clearly pleased with the fans’ reaction to Trent Alexander-Arnold after his Man of the Match display against Accrington Stanley.

Alexander-Arnold was the subject of intense scrutiny after his performance against Man United, with his commitment questioned amid contract talks and Real Madrid links.

The right-back responded with his cameo at Tottenham and again at the scene of the crime on Saturday as he scored and captained his side to a 4-0 win in the FA Cup.

In both matches, fans sang his song and it did not go unnoticed by Slot, who felt it was “the biggest compliment Trent could get” in the wake of his torrid display less than one week ago.

“I can talk for hours about that! Unbelievable,” Slot started after being asked about his right-back’s superb goal against the League Two side.

“I think the biggest compliment Trent could get was the reaction of everyone after the [Man] United game.

“Every player around the world, maybe except for a few, have bad games and that’s completely normal. But the moment Trent has a bad game, everybody has an opinion about him.

“Maybe, maybe, that has to do with the contract situation, I don’t know if that wasn’t there if everybody would have reacted in the same way.

“Maybe it’s the biggest compliment you can get if you have such a great first half of the season and you don’t play a good game against United.

“That was clear for me, for the fans, for you, for all the analysts who saw the game – but many were quite hard on him, and maybe that’s the biggest compliment you can get.”

Why Trent started vs. Accrington Stanley

The biggest takeaway for fans in the two games since that United fixture is that the efforts of the No. 66 could not be questioned, with no sign that Saturday was below him.

A start against John Doolan’s side would not have been expected a number of weeks ago, but it came somewhat out of necessity due to Conor Bradley‘s recent return from injury.

“I do think that is important, but that was not the reason to play him,” Slot said when asked if he felt it important to allow Alexander-Arnold to focus on the game and not the noise around him.

“The reason to play him was that Conor Bradley came back from a hamstring injury and two days ago he played his first minutes against Tottenham Hotspur.

“I think it’s a bit unknown for everyone how our flight was during that night, so we couldn’t land here in Liverpool so we had to go to Birmingham.

“We came home really, really late and for me, it was too big of a risk to play a player that had a hamstring issue five, six, seven, eight weeks ago two days after the Tottenham game.

“Then, the only other available full-back is Trent and as a result of him playing, I think it was good for him to play again in our own stadium, to feel the reception of the fans again.

“That was already fantastic when we played Tottenham and that was also again special for him today.

“That will only help him and us because if you want to do special things during the season we have to do it together. Not only the players, not only the players with the manager but definitely the players with the fans.”