"Shocking" - Robbie Fowler slams Liverpool defender for "lack of desire"

Robbie Fowler has heavily criticised Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold and slammed his ‘lack of desire’.

The Anfield legends' comments came in response to Liverpool’s 4-1 defeat to Napoli in the Champions League earlier this week.

A sluggish first half display from the Merseyside club saw them head into the break 3-0 down, with the first 45 minutes littered with defensive errors.

Whilst Alexander-Arnold cannot be directly blamed for the goals, footage does show the 23 year-old ball watching on many occasions and letting the Napoli attackers run riot.

Speaking to BT Sport after the game, Fowler had some harsh words to say about the reds’ performance, with Trent being the main man in the pundit’s firing line.

“What I would say is you can’t question the desire of this team over the last few years, but you can tonight,” said Fowler.

“We know how good Napoli are and they’ve been brilliant, but Liverpool have been so poor.

“Joe Gomez will get all the stick [for his first-half performance] but look at the lack of desire from Trent.

“You can’t call him out going forward. But defensively we can pick him apart because he doesn’t show the same desire to get back than he does to get forward and that’s wrong.

“Liverpool were shocking defensively.”

This isn’t the first time this season that the Liverpool man’s defending has been queried, with pundits quick to pile in on him after his side’s defeat to Man United.

When it comes to creating chances at the opposite end of the pitch, Alexander-Arnold is one of the best in the world.

Just last year he racked up 19 assists for Liverpool across all competitions, which is a frightening return for someone in his position, but he has often struggled to match this level of quality when defending. 

After a lacklustre start to the season, Klopp will be hoping his star defender can find some of his creative form and cut out his defensive errors in order to revive the Merseyside club’s Premier League and Champions League campaigns.