The right-back switching off let Real Madrid in during the Champions League final defeat but his style of play is vital to his side
, to linger on the error of defensive cover in the buildup to the only goal of the game, a mistake that will be flagged and sighed over, subjected to the light pen of doom, the gifs of death, the eight-shot still montage of shame.
And secondly, Alexander-Arnold is also how Liverpool win. He is how they got here, what this team is built for. Alexander-Arnold is the project. For an hour, as so often, he looked like the way Liverpool might win this game. Through all this there was the oddness of Alexander-Arnold’s reactions. Not his position, close to his centre-half, covering that hole. But his failure to look behind him, the sudden blankness, as though simply refusing to acknowledge that the man in white could exist. If you can’t see it, it can’t hurt you.