Trent Alexander-Arnold claims coming through his worst campaign last season has helped him this year.
Alexander-Arnold admits he suffered as Liverpool trailed in fifth to miss out on the Champions League for the only time in a full season under Jurgen Klopp.
The Liverpool vice-captain says he learnt from that experience and he was enjoying his best form ever before he was sidelined by a troublesome knee injury. Alexander-Arnold is now building his way back to match sharpness and told Gary Neville in SkyBet’s The Overlap that last season was his biggest low.
Asked whether last season was the lowest point of his career, he said: “I'd say so, yeah. As a player, a team, a whole, we went through a rough season. When people have such high expectations of you individually and as a team, it’s hard to keep living up to them.
“It’s the hardest demand ever. The hardest thing to do in football is to be consistent. I just felt at the end of last season, I thought I learned a lot from it, which is good, and I think that has helped me this season especially.
“I just thought I’m not going through that again and I didn’t want to feel the same way as I felt at times. Likewise, as a team, I want to be winning a minimum of one trophy per season.”
Alexander-Arnold says the dip came at a good time in his career because he was old enough to cope and young enough to know his peak years had still to come.
“I think it came at the right time,” he said. “I think if it came too early in my career, it would have dented my confidence and you would have started to question yourself, whereas that wasn’t the case. I understood what I’d achieved so far and was so proud of myself and how much work I’ve put in, but I also understood I’m not even halfway through my career.
“There’s so much more I can achieve. Everyone always says to me the stuff I’m good at, and excel at, such as the passing and vision, that’s the hard part, the things that people can’t pick up.
“Last season was the season where I thought to myself, I’m not going to go through that again and I should be able to control whether I have a good season and be happy with how I play regardless of what people say. I didn’t want to waste another season.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold was speaking to Gary Neville on SkyBet's The Overlap.
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