Former Ireland captain Kenny Cunningham joined Joe Molloy on The Football Show to discuss Trent Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool.
Liverpool are still a mess after the World Cup break.
A pair of own goals spared their blushes at home against Leicester last Friday. But a second game in four days saw the team completely lifeless at Brentford. Brentford deservedly won 3-1 and Jurgen Klopp made three substitutes at halftime in the hopes of changing his team's fortunes.
When Joe Molloy asked Kenny Cunningham what he would do to fix Liverpool, there weren't many obvious solutions.
Liverpool still have plenty of talent in attacking roles. Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota are all incoming reinforcements too. But Liverpool's problems are in central midfield and their back four. There is no solution to the midfield, the three starting options are simply too old and none of the backups are viable solutions.
The drop-off in midfield has led to more quality passes attacking the back four. That has led to more mistakes and more easily conceded goals.
One thing Liverpool could do is switch to a five at the back so Trent Alexander-Arnold could move to wing-back. While all of the Liverpool back four have been poor this season, Alexander-Arnold's defending has gone from bad to worse.
"The back four is getting more exposed now," Kenny Cunningham said.
"Opposition midfielders before couldn't even get their head up to see a pass before the pressure came from Henderson, Wijnaldum or whoever it was. The front three. It was a hoofed clearance towards the Liverpool back four, they usually gobbled it up.
"Now teams have an extra second or two in midfield.
"Trent has just imploded. He was never the best defender, we knew that. But the last six months to a year it's an all-time low level in terms of the quality of his defending. Almost to a point now where...you have to argue now in terms of his defensive deficiences whether they actually outweigh what he offers as an attacking threat."
Alexander-Arnold didn't feature at the World Cup for England because Gareth Southgate believed that. And the evidence is all there from this season. He has been directly responsible for an abnormal number of the goals that Liverpool have conceded.
There has to be a breaking point at some point for Jurgen Klopp surely?
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