Roy Keane dishes out hilarious putdown of ‘Tranmere’ Trent Alexander-Arnold after his first-half display against Man United at Anfield as ex-Red Devils captain slams ‘schoolboy’ defending

Roy Keane has blasted Trent Alexander-Arnold’s ‘schoolboy’ defending during the first half of Liverpool’s clash with Manchester United. 

The defender endured a difficult opening 45 minutes as he was bypassed with ease on a number of occasions. 

Diogo Dalot first went past Alexander-Arnold before delivering a cross towards Amad Diallo, who failed to take advantage. 

The England international then kept Rasmus Hojlund on side following a ball over the top, with the United striker denied by Alisson. 

Keane said on Sky Sports: ‘It’s too easy, just a couple of balls over the top. Trent’s defending it’s like schoolboy stuff, talking about going to Real Madrid, he’ll go to Tranmere Rovers after this.’

Lisandro Martinez eventually gave Ruben Amorim’s men the lead seven minutes into the second-half just moments after Dalot went past Alexander-Arnold yet again.  

But Liverpool turned the game on its head with two goals in 11 minutes through Cody Gakpo and a Mohamed Salah penalty. 

Alexander-Arnold’s struggles against United come amid uncertainty over his future with the Reds. 

Real Madrid are stepping up their pursuit of the 26-year-old right back, who is out of contract at the end of this season, with the European champions seeing an approach to sign him in January turned down this week.

It is understood Liverpool have not yet received any official bids for Alexander-Arnold but sources in Spain say Real are extremely confident of tempting him to join them – most probably in the summer.

Ahead of Sunday’s showdown, Arne Slot warned Madrid that their pursuit of Alexander-Arnold won’t be straightforward by citing the example of their failure to convince Steven Gerrard to leave Merseyside for Madrid.

Asked by reporters whether it concerned him that Madrid tended to get their way, the Liverpool boss said: ‘There was one player (Gerrard) they would have really loved to have but he didn’t come. You know him better than me. So it has happened.’