Liverpool: Alexander-Arnold does Pep’s Man City team talk for him with This Means More nonsense

Trent Alexander-Arnold has handed Manchester City all the motivation they need ahead of Sunday with a This Means More diatribe that prompted Rio Ferdinand to make machine gun sounds at the Etihad.

“Shots fired!” said Rio Ferdinand on TNT Sports as Laura Woods read out Trent Alexander-Arnold’s quotes after Manchester City had cruised into the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

It was a teenage YouTuber’s response to something deserving of raised eyebrows from adult human beings, most of whom we assume weren’t making machine-gun sounds and actions in their living rooms, as Ferdinand genuinely was on the pitch at the Etihad, upon hearing that Trent Alexander-Arnold had written Pep Guardiola’s team talk for him ahead of the crunch clash at Anfield.

“It’s tough. We’re up against a machine that’s built to win – that’s the simplest way to describe City and their organisation. Looking back on this era, although they’ve won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs, financially. How both clubs have built their teams and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans.”

Pin that on the away dressing-room wall on Sunday and Pep need not say a word, though he may choose to explain why Alexander-Arnold’s claims are absolute nonsense.

The supercilious ‘This Means More’ marketing b*ollocks appears to be more widespread now than ever before, with Jurgen Klopp’s imminent departure further kidding the fanbase that trophies this season will mean even more than trophies in any other campaign, which already mean more than trophies to any other set of fans by dint of their superior, deeper feelings.

Alexander-Arnold is talking specifically about the worth of gongs to Liverpool compared to Manchester City, whose players and fans he reckons somehow care less about success because of club finances. Phil Foden and his school pals from Stockport really wish they hadn’t spent £80m on a centre-back this summer, and had instead spent £85m on a striker like poor, hard-up Liverpool the year before. And anyway, Josko Gvardiol just doesn’t care like Darwin Nunez does.

Darwin Nunez celebrates his goal for Liverpool against Nottingham Forest.

He could perhaps justifiably claim that winning the Premier League would feel more special to them, but only because City have won it so many times that they may be slightly bored of it all, though that’s an attack on the professionalism of a group of players who uncared their way to a Treble last season. Unless of course they weren’t around yet like the flops signed in the summer, who probably quite fancy a trophy or three this term.

Levels of giving a damn have got nothing to do with how much money has been spent, or indeed “how both clubs have built their teams”, which – correct us if we’re wrong – has in the cases of both Manchester City and Liverpool essentially seen them buy very good footballers and put them on the pitch together.

Because before the This Means More-ites go all ‘Klopp’s Kids’ on us, for every Alexander-Arnold and Conor Bradley, there’s a Foden and a Rico Lewis, and the two clubs are separated by 0.1 in the Premier League average age ranking this season.

So maybe wind your neck in Trent, or don’t, and continue to hand psychological boosts to your Premier League rivals through your insulting, baseless claims.