Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold has been hailed as being something of a football genius as former Premier League player and manager Tim Sherwood praised his superb 'IQ.'
Sherwood has been impressed with the way that the Reds home-grown hero - who netted a stoppage time winner against Aston Villa on Saturday - has responded to his England snub.
HITC quote him as telling Optus Sport on Premier League Productions: “Trent could have done one or two things. He could have gone under and sulked and thrown his toys out of the pram.
“But he’s not going to do that. He has rolled his sleeves up and said ‘I will show you. I will perform for my club. We are champions and everyone is top draw and I am going to show you why I am a top draw player’.
“That goal was a little bit of calmness. It was cute. His footballing IQ is superb for this kid.”
Alexander-Arnold’s surprise omission from the recent World Cup qualifiers, has prompted many footballing figures to offer their opinions on him.
After the selection was made, an article in the Athletic stated that Alexander-Arnold’s omission had “been greeted with sense of shock and bemusement at Liverpool ”; where he was among the players given time off on the assumption he would be representing his country.
It was added that the 22-year-old was understood to be “devastated” at missing out, with Jurgen Klopp regarding him as one of Liverpool’s standout performers since December.
Gary Lineker has said that he was “bewildered” by the decision; Micah Richards launched into an impassioned rant in the player’s defence; Glenn Hoddle said the Liverpool player had “taken his foot off the pedal” but could learn from the snub; Alan Shearer maintained Alexander-Arnold is still “the best right-back in the country” .
After the international break, Alexander-Arnold provided an assist for Diogo Jota in his first game back, a 3-0 victory at Arsenal, Danny Murphy hailed his crossing ability as something not seen since David Beckham but following the 3-1 defeat at Real Madrid, another Anfield old boy Joe Cole expressed his fears that the Scouser’s game was being hampered by the absence of captain Jordan Henderson.
