Despite only playing for the final 15 minutes of the match, Alexander-Arnold’s return was met with largely positive reaction from supporters.<\/p>\n
On social media, the Madridistas didn’t hold back:<\/p>\n
“Trent Alexander-Arnold’s minutes against Valencia felt like a prime performance. Our style of play even changed!”<\/p>\n
“Trent Alexander-Arnold completely changed the game when he came on. Does he deserve to start every match?”<\/p>\n
“His passes are so satisfying. Football has missed him.”<\/p>\n
The brief but impressive appearance has raised expectations, especially with the first leg of Real Madrid’s Champions League knockout tie against Benfica looming next week. <\/p>\n
Yet head coach Alvaro Arbeloa was quick to manage the excitement, emphasising that full recovery remains the priority.<\/p>\n
“After being out for a long time, we are taking the same approach with him as with others returning from injury,” said Arbeloa. <\/p>\n
“We are proceeding cautiously and calmly because what we want is for him to find his rhythm, his best playing form. That’s how it will be with Trent.”<\/p>\n
It was the first time Arbeloa had publicly addressed Alexander-Arnold, and the comments put to rest earlier rumours suggesting he might not feature in his long-term plans – speculation that Real Madrid had carefully shielded the England international from. <\/p>\n
This was a clear signal that Alexander-Arnold remains central to the club’s long-term vision. And, as a former Liverpool and Real Madrid right-back himself, Arbeloa may be uniquely placed to help strengthen their relationship off the pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite only playing for the final 15 minutes of the match, Alexander-Arnold’s return was met with largely positive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-294024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}