Arne Slot asks fans to support Trent Alexander-Arnold at trophy presentation

The defender’s expected move to Real Madrid this summer has aggravated some Liverpool supporters

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has called on fans to put their grievances over Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure to one side for the Premier League champions’ coronation.

Former captain Alan Hansen will hand over the trophy to current skipper Virgil van Dijk after Sunday’s final match of the season against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace.

It will be 35 years and 24 days since Hansen himself lifted what was then the Division One trophy in front of a full Kop, and the first time fans will have seen it in person since then, as the 2020 ceremony took place in an empty stadium because of Covid regulations.

However, the spectre of Alexander-Arnold, who appears set to join Real Madrid in the summer after deciding not to renew his contract, looms large over the occasion. On his last appearance at Anfield, he was booed by fans unhappy at the way the former academy graduate had handled his departure.

Asked whether he would play the defender, who remained on the bench for Monday’s defeat at Brighton as midfielder Wataru Endo came on at right-back, Slot said: “I haven’t decided on that one yet, but I think this should be a day that everybody is going to enjoy.

“It has been 35 years. Everyone – Liverpool fans – has been waiting for this moment, and we have set the example against Tottenham (the day they clinched the title last month).

“Everyone in the stadium deserves to be there: the fans, the staff, but also the players. And one of my players is Trent, so he definitely deserves to be there as well because he has been part of an incredibly successful season and [an] incredibly successful few years at this club.

Trent Alexander-Arnold will leave Liverpool at the end of the season (PA Wire)

“I can only hope we do it one more time over like we did at Tottenham, and I have a lot of trust in our fans that we can do it again.”

Slot has spoken to Alexander-Arnold about the reception he received, with the defender looking stunned by the reaction.

Prior to that game, the head coach had said he would not tell supporters how they should react, but ahead of the trophy presentation, he has come down more in favour of the player.

“I talk to most players, not on a daily basis, but a lot, and especially if there are circumstances why I should talk to them a bit more. And it is clear in Trent’s situation, there are circumstances for me to talk more with him than with Virgil (van Dijk), for example,” Slot added.

“I am talking to him and that is the biggest difference between me and all the ones that have a purple bin (the colour of wheelie bins in the Liverpool City Council area, which many use as a determination for being Scouse).

“I speak to the human being Trent Alexander-Arnold every day and that, combined with winning something together, creates a different bond than maybe what the fans have with him.”

Slot revealed he had spoken with Alexander-Arnold a lot at the start of the season when he pulled him up about his defending.

“He’s going to leave either way, so why not tell it? It is already a first gift I can give Xabi Alonso (expected to be the new Real Madrid manager),” he said.

“I wasn’t completely happy with every single minute [of] how he was on the training ground. In my opinion, in certain moments he could do a bit more, to say it mildly.

“I said to him, ‘You are a much better defender than everyone tells you, unfortunately, you don’t show it all the time’, and that is why people sometimes tell you it is a part of a game you need to improve.

“If you are just at it and you are focused and concentrated, there are not many players who can go around him because he is fast, agile. He has [a] great mentality.

“It is about showing it every single game, because in this world we are judged not only on the 34 games we do well, we are mainly judged on the four games we don’t do so well.”