Trent Alexander-Arnold will miss the next couple of weeks of action after damaging his hamstring trying to deal with Gabriel Martinelli on Wednesday night.
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Gabriel Martinelli gave Trent Alexander-Arnold a torrid time on Wednesday night and, despite the result, there was no doubt that Liverpool got a tougher game from Arsenal than they have done in recent seasons.
Liverpool are due to play Nottingham Forest on Sunday in the FA Cup but Alexander-Arnold will miss that game and the upcoming international break.
“Trent is out with a hamstring,” Klopp told the media ahead of the FA Cup tie.
“He cannot be part of England as well – no good news, we will see how long that takes.”
Klopp was also asked if Alexander-Arnold will be out for weeks and replied: “Yes.”
The last time Alexander-Arnold was out of action with a hamstring problem was in July, 2021 when he missed 38 days.
Luckily for Liverpool, that came over the summer and he didn’t miss any matches.
On Wednesday night, Martinelli completed all three of his attempted dribbles against he man tasked with marking him.
He also won 57% of his ground duels and generally tortured the Liverpool defender all evening.
What did Klopp say about Martinelli?
Jurgen Klopp is a huge admirer of Gabriel Martinelli, previously calling him ‘really unbelievable’ and the ‘talent of the century’.
Speaking after the game on Wednesday, Klopp said, “Martinelli is such a talented boy. It’s really tricky.
“If anyone says Trent can’t defend, they should come to me and I’ll knock them down. I cannot hear that anymore, I don’t know what the boy has to do.”
Klopp is believed to be keen to sign the Brazilian 20-year-old.
Shame for him that Martinelli has already made it clear he would happily spend his life at Arsenal.
In 2019, Klopp said, “”Martinelli’s pretty much the same age (as Sepp van den Berg) but he’s a talent of the century.
“He’s an incredible striker, so it’s really difficult.”
“It was not in this game only. I watch a lot of football, so I saw the Europa League games of Arsenal,” Klopp explained in a different interview.
“He’s 18 years old, right? So our scouting department is all over the world and stuff like this, but I think Edu gets all the credit for that signing.
“He’s really unbelievable. So young, looks so mature already, is a proper threat. Yeah, he looks like a really decent player.
“But I didn’t want to put any backpack [pressure] on his back with this thing [his earlier remarks] but I just really like good football players and obviously he’s a very good one.”
