BREAKING NEWS LIVE: ALEXANDER-ARNOLD IS GOING TO MADRID.

After the debate that flickered after Jarell Quansah was subbed for Ibrahima Konate at Ipswich Town on August 17, on account of the young defender essentially losing one too many duels to the powerful Liam Delap, Slot’s latest decision involving Trent Alexander-Arnold has seen the chatter really rage since Sunday.

On the face of it, the call to sub Alexander-Arnold alongside Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota, immediately after Liverpool had taken a two-goal lead at home to Brentford, was a sensible one. It rested the limbs of three stars the Reds need to keep fit at an early juncture of the campaign, with the game virtually won with 20 minutes to go

But the vice-captain’s visible frustrations, that continued after the full-time whistle, created an unnecessary subplot at a time when all the focus should have been on a routine and straightforward victory in a fixture that could easily have caught out a new coach still getting all of his ideas across.

To his credit, Slot handled the post-match grilling well, saying: “I understand. Every player wants to play 90 minutes but I don’t think the players who were on the bench from the start were really happy with the choice I made.