Jamie Carragher launched a scathing attack on Trent Alexander-Arnold on the back of his awful performance against Manchester United on Sunday.

The right-back had a dismissal performance at Anfield with both United goals coming down Liverpool’s right flank, while Lisandro Martinez’s opener originated from his sloppy clearance. Roy Keane and Gary Neville were critical of Alexander-Arnold’s display while even Virgil van Dijk was spotted venting his frustrations after United once again made inroads down that flank.

So poor was the 26-year that he was replaced by Conor Bradley in the latter stages of the game. His disappointing afternoon came just days after Real Madrid saw a £20m ($25m) offer rejected for the England international which, in the eyes of Carragher, unsettled Alexander-Arnold in one of the biggest games of the season.

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"I thought he was really poor,” claimed the former Liverpool center-back. “I don’t think the game couldn't have gone much worse for him, there was always going to be focus on him.

“I was expecting Trent to put in a performance we've put in so often here where he dominates the game from right-back. He's a play maker. I felt Man United’s system would play into his hands, there'd be a lot of space to get his head up and put crosses in, combine with Mo Salah, switch the play.

“I thought he'd be thinking about how everyone's talking about him negatively on the back of Real Madrid putting a bid in, and I was expecting a really big performance. He was poor defensively - we’ve seen that before - but there was nothing going forward on the ball.

“Only he knows if the talk affected him, but the fact he was so poor in the first game after Real Madrid put a bid in him only tells me it must have affected him.

“I think the manager is brilliant at making changes, he identifies things and changes them,” Carragher added. “I think he got that wrong today, I think he took too long to take Trent off. Not at half-time, I’d see how the first 10/15 minutes go. But as soon as Manchester United got that first goal I think Trent should have come off a lot earlier.”