It was a miserable return to Liverpool for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who received a one-star rating alongside two Real Madrid superstars.
The Reds overcame the Liga giants at Anfield on Tuesday evening, being outplayed for large periods and having Thibaut Courtois to thank for keeping them in the game.
For Alexander-Arnold, it was not the homecoming that he would have hoped for, only coming on as a late substitute and being booed throughout.
The 27-year-old has made a slow start to life at Madrid and it’s fair to say his cameo wasn’t rated by the Spanish media.
In their post-match player ratings, Mundo Deportivo gave Alexander-Arnold a paltry one-star score, but he wasn’t the only player in that boat.
Both Vinicius Jr and Kylian Mbappe suffered the same fate, with the former kept quiet by the excellent Conor Bradley all night.
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In fact, Courtois and Alvaro Carreras were the only players who got more than a one-star rating, with the Belgian rightly topping the pile with a three.
Writing for the same publication, Mario Calderon accused Mbappe of going “missing” in the first half, failing to turn up after a great start to the season.
Marca were praiseworthy of Conor Bradley‘s performance up against Vinicius, saying his marking of him was “particularly striking” and that the Madrid winger “couldn’t get past” him once.
Meanwhile, AS journalist Jose Felix Diaz claimed that Madrid’s “competitive level hasn’t evolved” under Xabi Alonso compared to Carlo Ancelotti at Anfield last season.
He also added that that is especially the case regarding “the players’ attitude with and without the ball,” not working hard enough to silence the Liverpool crowd.
Cadena Ser went down a similar route with their criticism, targeting Jude Bellingham for his lack of work ethic out of possession:
“They struggle to defend aerial balls because other players like Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbappe don’t track back to cover them.”
It wasn’t only the players who received flak, however, with former Liverpool midfielder Alonso’s tactics questioned by Sport.
They said that Madrid were guilty of “complacency” throughout, “forgetting to press after the 20-minute mark and letting themselves be dictated by Arne Slot‘s tactics.”
They also felt that while the team needed to look at themselves for on-pitch errors, the “substitutions are and will be the responsibility of the coach.”
All in all, this was far from the night that Alexander-Arnold and Alonso dreamed of returning to their former club, with Madrid lacking quality all night.
They may be five points clear at the top of La Liga, but Liverpool showed the jump up in quality to the Premier League currently.