Trent Alexander-Arnold returns to Anfield with Real Madrid on Tuesday for the first time since leaving Liverpool last summer, with the Reds and their fans missing the right back more than they perhaps would like to admit.

It is almost six months to the day Alexander-Arnold confirmed one of the worst-kept secrets in football by announcing that unlike Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, he would not be signing a new deal at the club in order to, as he told Prime Video Sport ahead of the game, pursue a "new challenge" in the Spanish capital.

That this was a local boy and the vice-captain of the team with a 20-plus year association with the Reds meant feelings were raw on Merseyside, with the defender even booed by a section of his own fans after coming on as a substitute against Arsenal at Anfield in the first game after the announcement.

Some even scoffed at Alexander-Arnold's claim that part of his reason for joining Los Blancos was to help him win the Ballon d'Or, with no doubt some Liverpool supporters keeping a close eye on how he would fare, even secretly hoping he would fail at the Santiago Bernabeu.

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