Steve Nicole has admitted he is concerned about Trent Alexander-Arnold having to mark Real Madrid’s Vinicas Jr on Tuesday night.
The La Liga giants travel to Anfield for the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 fixture. It is a repeat of last season’s final, where the Brazilian net was the game’s only goal.
Liverpool and Real were confident going into next week’s game after an important 2-0 win in the league yesterday.
Nicole told ESPN (via The Boot Room) when asked what he thought of Alexander-Arnold facing Vinicius Jr.
“Listen, Alexander-Arnold, when he walked in today because Saint-Maximin was ten, he must have thought, ‘Thank you very much,’ because he didn’t know what was going on. .
“And that’s against good people. The difference between Saint-Maximin and Vini, sorry, but they’re worlds apart.
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“He knows what he’s doing. Vini has the confidence and football brain to take advantage of the situation against Alexander-Arnold.
“If he wins as many balls as he did against Osasuna, we could have a problem.”
Carlo Ancelotti’s side needed two late goals to score all three against Osasuna, but Newcastle’s second league defeat of the season came as the Reds scored two early goals. It was a goal in stages.
Alexander-Arnold scored an impressive assist for Darwin Nunez in the Northeast and made the right shift in defense as Jürgen Klopp’s side kept a clean sheet in the league for the first time since October.
Admittedly, Scouser feels he has received too much criticism regarding the defensive side of his game.
We hope he will once again silence the criticism on Tuesday night to deliver a positive result to the Bernabéu in next month’s return leg.
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