Andy Robertson has revealed the message he used to give Trent Alexander-Arnold in private at Liverpool, and it has aged into the story of the England right-back’s move to Real Madrid.
“I will never get as much high praise as you, but I’ll never get as much criticism as you,” Robertson said he used to tell his former team-mate, speaking on Gary Neville’s podcast The Overlap.
Robertson, now at Tottenham Hotspur after Spurs signed him on a free transfer this summer, was talking about the coverage that has trailed Alexander-Arnold since he swapped Anfield for the Santiago Bernabéu in 2025.
“It’s very different when you are English, compared to another nationality,” the Scotland captain said.
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Mourinho added Dumfries in July
The context in Madrid is unforgiving. José Mourinho took over at Real Madrid on a three-year deal, confirmed by the club on 11 June 2026, and his summer rebuild included the €20m signing of Denzel Dumfries from Inter, direct competition for Alexander-Arnold’s shirt.
Dumfries started Real Madrid’s first two LaLiga games this season before Alexander-Arnold reclaimed his place. He started in the 4-0 win over Málaga on 30 August, setting up Kylian Mbappé for the third goal.
‘Trent was waiting on Henderson’
Robertson’s defence of his former team-mate was tactical as much as emotional. Liverpool’s set-up, he said, protected the two full-backs in very different ways.
“The way I defended at Liverpool compared to Trent was very different. I had Sadio helping me out and he was a bit more aggressive so if I missed, he’d usually be there,” Robertson said.
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Mohamed Salah’s role on the right, he added, meant Alexander-Arnold was routinely left one-against-one.
“With Mo, we didn’t want him coming back towards our box. A lot of times, Trent was waiting on someone like Jordan Henderson to come over, so, sometimes, I started to feel sorry for him.”
‘An unbelievable one-v-one defender’
The Scot also pushed back on the label that has followed Alexander-Arnold since his teenage years at Liverpool.
“Trent is a very, very good defender… [in his] best games, he was an unbelievable one-v-one defender,” Robertson told the podcast. “I’ve seen him lock out [Kylian] Mbappe at PSG. In the Champions League finals, he was unbelievable.”
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Then came the line that gave the interview its news value.
“Now, at times, he maybe makes mistakes. But we all do. But it’s if [Trent] had this stigma around him, that he can’t defend. And he’s had that from a very early age.”
Alexander-Arnold, 27, has one assist in 213 LaLiga minutes this season, with Dumfries pushing him for a starting place every matchday.
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