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Arne Slot has explained why he took off Trent Alexander-Arnold against Aston Villa, with the vice-captain looking very despondent when being taken off after the 60th minute.

Liverpool’s eight-point league lead came under scrutiny as they squandered multiple chances to secure victory against a resurgent Aston Villa side.

The 2-2 draw highlighted both the Reds’ attacking prowess and recurring defensive frailties.

Liverpool began with characteristic intensity, pressing Villa high and creating early chances.

Virgil van Dijk forced Emiliano Martínez into a reflex save within five minutes, while Diogo Jota wasted a free header from six yards.

The breakthrough came in the 29th minute when Villa’s winter signing Andrés García panicked under pressure, gifting possession to the Reds and allowing Jota to selflessly square the ball for Mohamed Salah to fire into the roof of the net for his 24th league goal of the season.

But the half concluded disastrously for the visitors as Ollie Watkins outmuscled Ibrahima Konaté to head home Lucas Digne’s cross, giving Villa a 2-1 advantage.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s deflected equalizer was one of his last actions of the game, and it’s fair to say that the 26-year-old hardly looked happy at being substituted.

What did Arne Slot say about Trent Alexander-Arnold?

Slot admitted that he was being careful and managing the minutes of not just the right back but also Diogo Jota as well Luis Diaz:

“Result-wise, going 2-1 in at half-time, you could say it didn’t work,” he said on the rotation.

Performance-wise, it worked really, really, really well because we totally did not deserve to go in 2-1 down at half-time – again, in my opinion.

“The reason why we did this is because Lucho [Luis Diaz] played three games in seven days.

I played him at Plymouth because I knew I had Cody [Gakpo] so I could switch them around if needed but then Cody got injured at Everton, he got a big knock, and then all of a sudden you have only one winger left.”

Slot added on Trent Alexander-Arnold:

“But result-wise you never know if you would have done it differently what might have happened but it wasn’t smart to play Lucho 90 minutes again.

“The same way I had to take out Jota and Trent, both coming back from injuries.

Jota hasn’t played for four or five months, it is his second start now after four or five months?
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