Arne Slot believes criticism of Trent Alexander-Arnold after Liverpool's 2-2 draw with Manchester United was potentially amplified by the ongoing contract impasse as the head coach praised the Anfield fans for the reception reserved for the vice-captain in Saturday's 4-0 win over Accrington Stanley in the FA Cup.

Alexander-Arnold was below par in last week's result against United and was withdrawn for Conor Bradley late on before being left out of the team that started the 1-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final.

The No.66 started Saturday's comfortable defeat of League Two Accrington and was captain for the day in the absence of Virgil van Dijk before making it 2-0 with a sublime strike on the cusp of half time.

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Slot was delighted with all-round performance of a player who is firmly in the crosshairs of Real Madrid and while the head coach thinks the critiquing of his player's display against United was perhaps exaggerated by his contract status, the Dutchman was pleased to see how the home support backed the West Derby-born Alexander-Arnold on the day against Accrington.

"I could talk for hours about that [goal], unbelievable," Slot said. "The biggest compliment Trent could get was the reaction of everyone after the Manchester United game. Every player around the world, maybe except for a few, has a bad game and that is completely normal. But the moment Trent has one, everyone has an opinion about it.

"Maybe, maybe that is because of the contract situation. I don't know if that wasn't there if people would have reacted in the same way. But the biggest compliment you can have is that if you have such a great first half of the season and you don't play a good game against United - and that was clear for me, for you, the fans and the analysts who saw the game - but many of them were quite hard on him. And maybe that is the biggest compliment you can get?"

Slot added: "I do think that is important [to start him] but that [contract noise] is not the reason today. The reason to play him was Conor Bradley came back from a hamstring injury and two days ago he played his first minutes against Tottenham.

"I think it is a bit unknown how our flight was that night, we couldn’t land in Liverpool so we went to Birmingham and came home really late. And for me it was too much of a risk to play a player who had a hamstring issue for a few weeks and only came back two days ago.

"The only other available full-back is Trent. As a result of him playing, I think it was good for him to play in our own stadium and feel the reception of the fans again, that was already fantastic against Tottenham. So I think it was also special again today and that can only help him and us. If you want to do special things this season, you can do that together, not only with the players, the manager but definitely with the fans."