-Credit:Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images
Liverpool is back in Carabao Cup action today with the Reds set to take on Tottenham in North London again. We caught up with Nick Sapia from LFC Boston ahead of the game.
Liverpool could only draw with Man Utd. How do you reflect on that result?
It’s disappointing because it’s a missed opportunity to put more distance at the top of the table — Liverpool didn’t play well, but they still created the chances they needed to win, and not seeing the game out with a 2-1 lead is frustrating. It was also annoying to see Manchester United put up their best performance of the season at the Reds’ expense.
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If anything, it’s a reminder that Liverpool isn’t going to stroll to a league title casually. They will get every team’s best shot from here on out, and it will take strong performances every week to get a league title over the line. The good news is it’s another week where they didn’t lose ground and one less week for Arsenal to catch the Reds.
Trent Alexander-Arnold didn’t play well. Was it one of those days for him, or did the Real Madrid interest play a part?
There are two predictions I’m confident in making as it relates to Trent. Number one, he desperately wants to win the Premier League. I’m not having any of this narrative that says he’s mailing it in because he decided to go to Madrid. To be clear, he didn’t play well, but it’s not because he doesn’t care about winning with Liverpool.
Number two, Liverpool needs him to accomplish everything they want this season. I’ve also seen some shouts about taking the money from Madrid and shipping him off in January, which is frankly ridiculous. We’re all excited about Conor Bradley, but with him just returning from injury and the number of games remaining this season, the Reds need both to be fit and playing well. It’s a position of massive strength for the team.
The speculation regarding Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future at Anfield refuses to go away -Credit:Carl Recine/Getty Images
Only Trent will know if he was distracted on Sunday because of the off-the-field elements. I’m sure he will be the first to admit that he needs to play better, and we will see him do so in the coming weeks. He may end up moving to Real Madrid in the end, but he certainly would want to do it with a Premier League title in hand.
Mohamed Salah has been vocal about his situation once again. Are you confident that something can be sorted out with him and Virgil van Dijk?
Yes, I’m still confident. The rumor mill has been trending in a positive direction, and something will get done with both players — hopefully, soon so all of this contract talk can die down, and we can focus on this special season unfolding in front of us.
It’s the January transfer window, of course. If you could sign someone, what position is the priority and who would you target?
I think Liverpool have a lot of business to do in the summer across a few different positions — I think they’ll be looking for players in each position across the backline, and I suspect there will be a bit of a shuffle in the forward group. That said, it doesn’t make sense to do any of that business in January, as the squad is in good harmony now.
If they were to sign someone this month, it would probably be an opportunistic one like Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo in previous January windows, and I would venture a guess that they would bring in an attacking midfielder. Let’s see what happens though.