Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Trent Alexander-Arnold was left overexposed in the Reds' 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Sunday.

Alexander-Arnold, in the final six months of his current deal with the Reds, was heavily targeted by United at Anfield as Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes overloaded the left-hand side.

United's opening goal came from Lisandro Martinez breaking down the left and unleashing and smashing an emphatic shot past Alisson Becker.

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And when assessing the goal on Monday Night Football, Carragher insisted that the way Liverpool set up was a "huge problem" and resulted in United experiencing so much joy.

"This was a huge problem tactically in this position," said Carragher. "It was far too easy to get the ball to Manchester United's wingback on the left side. We said Dalot wasn't great going one-v-one last week, but he fancied it right from the start of the game, he thought he could go past Trent Alexander-Arnold. We saw it numerous times in the game.

"Look at Fernandes, on the front foot, aggressive. He was like that from minute one against Liverpool. This was shocking from Liverpool defensively, really poor. But that was brilliant from Fernandes and Martinez."

For Alexander-Arnold, it was his first appearance for Liverpool since the club rejected an approach from Real Madrid for the defender on New Year's Eve.

Slot, though, didn't buy into the theory that the England international's below-par performance was a by-product of the approach from Los Blancos earlier in the week.

"I don’t believe in those things but I think it’s nine out of 10 people will tell you it affected him,” said the Dutchman in his post-match press conference. "But I am one of the 10 that tells you that I don’t think that affected him.

"What affected him is that he had to play Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot which are two starters for Portugal. Great, great, great players. We have a fantastic player here in Diogo Jota, and he’s not even playing for Portugal - mostly he’s not playing - so that tells you how much quality United has.

"No, it wasn’t that he had to play on his own against those two because Ryan (Gravenberch) was nine out of 10 times close to that situation. But, he was many times faced in a one-v-one situation against those players. I think that is more important for Trent to play against Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot than it is the rumours that were there in the week."