Liverpool fans highlight Kyle Walker and England hypocrisy with Trent Alexander-Arnold

Liverpool knows better than most what Trent Alexander-Arnold can do at his peak. Having won the lot with his boyhood club, the 25-year-old Scouser should have nothing more to prove.

Instead, though, the Liverpool vice-captain has been a divisive figure for his whole career . Rather than the exceptional talent he has in an attacking sense being at the forefront of the conversation, it has been his exaggerated defensive weakness that has often been highlighted the most.

But the reality is that while Alexander-Arnold has not always been a perfect defensive player, there is no such thing. And in the European Championship final against Spain, there was another reminder of that from Kyle Walker.

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The conversation around England heading into the tournament — led by Gary Neville — was that the Liverpool man was too suspect defensively to be trusted against the bigger teams. By the end of the group phase, the same pundit was insisting (rightly) that Alexander-Arnold shouldn't be a scapegoat.

As Walker was at the scene of the crime for two Spain goals in Berlin, it didn't go unnoticed on Merseyside that Alexander-Arnold was sat on the sidelines throughout. " If only England had the best attacking RB in world football!" Fricolor123321 posted on Reddit.

Another user, Academic-Advisor, wrote: "In retrospect the Gordon Ramsay you f*****g donkey meme would have been better but I couldn't be a***d to make another one." That was in response to a meme about one employee being allowed to get away with something while another was sent to HR for the same thing...

"Kyle "he's a better defender than Trent" Walker" was the caption on another post, alongside a still image of Walker scrambling to get back into position ahead of Spain's winning goal. It was close to being offside, but the second came down the England right side too.

Liverpool.com says: The conversation around Alexander-Arnold is not frustrating alone; it is more the difference in scrutiny that goes on between one player and another. If Walker was as heavily analyzed as Alexander-Arnold, the perception of the pair's defending would be very different.

Meanwhile, going the other way, the Liverpool man is a generational talent who has completely redefined what it is to play the right-back role. England was certainly missing that element of his game and yet never looked like being close to unlocking it.