Jurgen Klopp tends to reserve the bulk of his public praise for his own players, as any good manager does. Yet every now and then, exceptions are made when Liverpool come up against truly top talents. And Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli is one of those exceptions.
The 20-year-old has already received praise from Klopp this season, with the Liverpool boss branding him an "outstanding player," following the Reds 2-0 Carabao Cup victory in January. He also said that "everybody should remember that name" for years to come.
The young Brazilian proved a thorn in Liverpool’s side in that clash, even despite the victory, and it was the same again on Wednesday night. In that game, he attempted (five) and completed more dribbles (four) than any other player on the pitch. Furthermore, only Thiago made more progressive carries than the Arsenal man (six).
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Tasked with trying to keep Martinelli at bay was Trent Alexander-Arnold. It proved to be a tough assignment at times, and not for the first time, the 23-year-old’s defensive capabilities came into question at full-time. This has been a common issue for Liverpool’s right-back, with his attacking brilliance often lauded, yet going the other way he’s scrutinised.
But although there’s an acknowledgement that he struggled at times on Wednesday night when facing up to Martinelli in one vs one battles, the same shouldn’t really dictate the narrative around his defensive prowess.
Martinelli looks on course to become one of the Premier League’s, and maybe even Europe’s, most distinguished attackers. His dribbling capabilities are already up there with the best, meaning there are few in the game who’d be able to cope as well as Alexander-Arnold did across the course of the 90 minutes.
That was certainly the view of Klopp who fiercely defended his right-back after the game. “If anybody says that Trent cannot defend then they can come to me and I'll knock them down, I cannot hear that anymore, I don't know what more the boy has to do. Obviously both teams had spells of possession where the other team was patient and didn't want to step out, but we had to. Trent did exceptionally well against Gabriel Martinelli.”
In Klopp’s eyes, it’s clear that Alexander-Arnold did as well as could be expected, yet even so in an ideal world, the Liverpool boss would prefer to avoid having the headache of coming up against the Brazilian on a semi-regular basis. He’d prefer to have him lining up for him instead.
And the level of his performances across meetings this season does raise real intrigue about whether Martinelli could have done enough the persuade Liverpool to make a move. They have of course only recently brought in Luis Diaz and are as a result looking much more equipped in the attacking areas.
However, Martinelli is the sort of profile for which exceptions could be made. Despite being just 20, he is already excelling in the Premier League, has a very high ceiling and could certainly thrive playing within a Klopp system. His importance to Arsenal means that it could be tough to prize him away. Yet if Liverpool could find a way to do so, then he’d be an excellent addition to the attack.
