Andrew Robertson Defends Trent Alexander-Arnold's Defensive Skills

Andrew Robertson spent years bombing up and down Liverpool’s left flank in tandem with Trent Alexander-Arnold. Together under Jurgen Klopp, they redefined what full-backs could be, racking up assists while hauling in the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title a year later.

Yet for all the symmetry in their attacking output, Robertson says the way their defending was judged could not have been more different.

‘I started to feel sorry for him’

Speaking on The Overlap, the current Tottenham defender pulled back the curtain on the tactical reality of Liverpool’s heyday – and why Alexander-Arnold so often looked exposed.

On the left, Robertson had Sadio Mane snapping into duels, tracking runners, and hunting the ball. If Robertson missed a tackle, Mane was usually there to clean up. On the right, Mohamed Salah’s role was very different. His job was to stay high, threaten in transition, and stay away from his own box.

That left Alexander-Arnold operating with far less protection.

“The way I defended at Liverpool compared to Trent was very different,” Robertson explained. “I had Sadio helping me out and he was a bit more aggressive so if I missed [a tackle], he'd usually be there. With Mo [Salah], we didn't want him coming back towards our box. A lot of times, Trent was waiting on someone like [Jordan Henderson] to come over, so, sometimes, I started to feel sorry for him.”

The picture he paints is of a structural imbalance baked into Klopp’s system. Liverpool tilted left, Mane grafted, Salah stayed high, and the right-back was often left dealing with waves of pressure on his own.

Alexander-Arnold eventually left Anfield for Real Madrid in 2025, but the noise around his defending followed him across the continent.

Praise, criticism – and an English spotlight

Robertson also touched on something more personal: the scrutiny that comes with being an English star.

“It's very different when you are English, compared to another nationality,” he said. “I always said to Trent, 'I will never get as much high praise as you, but I'll never get as much criticism as you.'”

As a Scotland international, Robertson feels he has lived in a different media climate. Alexander-Arnold, by contrast, has been dissected from the moment he broke through at Liverpool. Every misplaced step, every one-v-one that went wrong, fed into a narrative that he “can’t defend”.

Robertson rejects that outright.

Locking down Mbappe

The left-back pointed to the period when Liverpool were at full throttle in Europe, and Alexander-Arnold was asked to stand up to the very best.

During the run to the 2018 Champions League final, the right-back posted strong defensive numbers and produced high-level displays against elite opposition. Robertson hasn’t forgotten.

“I've seen him lock out [Kylian] Mbappe at PSG. In the Champions League finals, he was unbelievable,” he said. “Trent is a very, very good defender… [in his] best games, he was an unbelievable one-v-one defender.”

That, for Robertson, is the reality that gets drowned out. Yes, Alexander-Arnold makes mistakes. So does every defender. The difference, he believes, is the label that attached itself early and never let go.

“Now, at times, he maybe makes mistakes. But we all do,” Robertson added. “But it's if [Trent] had this stigma around him, that he can't defend. And he's had that from a very early age. It's as if he can't shift it.”

A crossroads for club and country

Alexander-Arnold’s immediate challenge lies with England. Thomas Tuchel has called him into his latest squad, another chance to convince a national-team manager he can be trusted from the start.

Despite his medal haul and his performances on the biggest club stages, he has never nailed down a regular starting role for the Three Lions. This camp offers a fresh audition under a new boss, and another test of whether perception can finally bend to reality.

At club level, the stakes are just as high. Since his 2025 move to the Bernabeu, his La Liga journey has stuttered. The right-back now finds his Real Madrid future in question, fighting to rediscover the form that once made him the most feared creator from deep in Europe.

Robertson’s message cuts through the noise: the system left him exposed, the scrutiny has been harsher, the stigma unfair. What happens next – for England and for Real Madrid – will decide whether that tag finally fades, or follows Alexander-Arnold into the next chapter of his career.