Gary Neville felt that Trent Alexander-Arnold was distracted as the Liverpool right-back put in a poor performance against Manchester United in the Premier League.

Amid talk heightening of a move to Real Madrid, the Reds' No. 66 was well below par. "The bid from Real Madrid is bad timing for him," Neville said live on Sky Sports post-match. "I don't know what's going to happen with him, but certainly if you've got that going into a big game, and you're a local lad, that won't be easy with the distractions.

"Real Madrid are a hell of an animal. It was insulting from them. They behave like that and think they can get what they want. But Liverpool are a club of immense stature; they're never going to sell Trent for £20m ($25m) in January. You're taking the mickey a bit.

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"That will have probably unnerved him. You can imagine his agent, family and friends asking him how he's doing, and that noise going on in his head before the game. That won't have helped."

Alexander-Arnold was beaten countless times in one-versus-ones during the game and didn't have much of an impact going the other way either. Liverpool did escape with a point, though, thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah, and head coach Arne Slot was keen to point out that he didn't get much cover from Ryan Gravenberch.

Jamie Carragher even felt that Alexander-Arnold could have been taken off earlier in the game. "The manager is brilliant at making changes," he said. "You go back to the first game of the season and he brings Jarell Quansah off at half-time. He identifies things in the first half and changes it.

"I think he got it wrong today, I think he took too long to take Trent off. I'd have seen how the first 10 or 15 minutes of the second half went but as soon as the first Man Utd goal went in, I think he should've come off."

Lisandro Martinez had put Manchester United a goal in front while Amad Diallo scored to make it 2-2. Before the end, both Virgil van Dijk and Harry Maguire could have won it for their teams.

Liverpool.com says: Alexander-Arnold was poor here and he isn't having the best of times at the moment. Ultimately, until the contract is sorted out one way or another, the Liverpool ace is going to continue to be the subject of much speculation.