Trent Alexander-Arnold's substandard performance was the major talking point from Sunday's 2-2 draw between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield.
With such a high profile fixture taking place in the same week that Real Madrid lodged a £20m bid for the England international, Alexander-Arnold was always going to be the centre of attention.
Rather than rise to the moment, however, TAA seemed distracted. Roy Keane said he belonged at Tranmere Rovers, Virgil Van Dijk shot him daggers after a particularly poor spell of defending and Liverpool supporters were audibly frustrated with their rightback.
Tyrone man Conor Bradley was introduced in the 86th minute for Alexander-Arnold for his first game since Liverpool's Champions League win over Real Madrid last year, and he looked lively as ever.
If Alexander-Arnold is destined to join Real Madrid in the summer, as it seems at present, Bradley will become hugely important to Liverpool's success, both this season and beyond.
Speaking to the Gary Neville Podcast in the Anfield commentary gantry after the game, Jamie Carragher said he doesn't expect Arne Slot to show excessive deference to Liverpool's vice captain if this form continues.
In fact, he said he thinks Alexander-Arnold is one poor game away from being dropped for the Northern Ireland international.
With Conor Bradley now coming back, I think if Trent puts in another performance like that, I think the manager will put Conor Bradley back in.
Interestingly Carragher compared Alexander-Arnold's casual approach to defending on Sunday to that of Bradley.
Conor Bradley - the first time I think Garnacho ran at him - he tried to go around him and Conor Bradley put a big, strong tackle in. It went out for a corner, okay. Manchester United were happy to get a corner, but you could feel it. He wants to put the tackle in. He wants to block the cross...I know he [Trent] is that type of player. I get that. I can't believe he was like that today, on the back of what happened with the Real Madrid...I was actually thinking Trent is going to come here and put in a big performance to say 'this is why Real Madrid want me.'
Liverpool plays Spurs in the League Cup semifinal on Wednesday and it'll be very interesting to see who starts at right-back.
Arne Slot on Trent Alexander-Arnold
Arne Slot was happy to put the poor performance down to the quality of the opposition in his post-match interview.
“I think Trent has played mostly very good games for this club," he said.
“There probably have been games that he wasn’t on his best; today wasn’t his best game, but that probably had something to do with them as well.
“Especially in the first half, sometimes Ryan wasn’t close enough to him, so he was sometimes in a two-vs-one situation as well.
“I would put it more on the performance of Dalot and Bruno Fernandes than it being down to Trent.”
