The toughest opponent Trent Alexander-Arnold has ever faced has been revealed, and the response will undoubtedly surprise you.
The Liverpool defender, who put on incredible performances for the Merseyside club, has earned a reputation for his fantastic attacking production from full-back over the years.
The 25-year-old, however, has previously drawn criticism for his defensive prowess, for example, when he was chosen for England’s World Cup squad in Qatar last year.
And now Alexander-Arnold has revealed which player throughout his playing career he has found it most tough to defend against—and it’s absolutely not a name you’d think.
He said, “I would say Brandon Barker played for [Manchester] City,” in an interview with the Liverpool YouTube channel.
I lost 3-0 when representing the Under-21s at Anfield when I was 18 years old. He notched two goals and a helper. At 60 [minutes], I quit.
He is still the opponent I believe just annihilated me, dude, to this day. It’s never been that bad for me before.
“This kid is going to be the best player in the world,” I thought at that time. I’d say Brandon Barker because I’d never seen somebody move so briskly, sharply, and successfully.
Barker graduated from the Manchester City academy before departing the team in 2019 to join Scottish powerhouse Rangers, where he spent time on loan from Preston, Rotherham, and Hibernian.
However, after brief periods at Reading and Cypriot side Omonia and a lacklustre performance during his time in Scotland, Barker finds himself a free agent in 2023.
Barker, currently 27 years old, spent 11 years in the Manchester City youth and made one first-team appearance after replacing Bersant Celina in a 5-1 FA Cup loss to Chelsea.
Between 2013 and 2016, he was able to compete for England at the U18, U19, and U20 levels.
Alexander-Arnold recently made headlines, meantime, when James Maddison, who was representing England, made a playful attempt to wound up the Liverpool defender.
The well-known internet prankster Maddison pulled off another one when he posted a photo of himself and Alexander-Arnold in the St. George’s Park gym.
He made fun of Liverpool’s frustration over their opening goal being overturned in Tottenham’s recent victory over the Reds and their following requests for the contentious game to be replayed by captioning the photo, “Still asking for a replay.”
After Luis Diaz’s goal was wrongly disallowed for offside, Spurs defeated Liverpool 2-1 in the dying seconds.