If one man bore the brunt of the criticism after Liverpool’s Community Shield defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, it was Trent Alexander-Arnold.
He endured an afternoon to forget at Wembley, often finding himself targeted by former Reds man Raheem Sterling and continually being caught of position.
Even his usually inch-perfect set-piece delivery was off the mark, on a day when the 20-year-old failed to spark.
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Some supporters have responded particularly negatively to Alexander-Arnold’s showing, even suggesting Jurgen Klopp leaves him out of the starting lineup against Norwich City on Friday night.
Given the good form of Joe Gomez and Joel Matip, calls for the former to replace Alexander-Arnold at right-back have not gone unnoticed.
This is a typically knee-jerk response, however, with the youngster such a key man for Liverpool already, despite his tender years.
He has matured into one of Europe’s most influential attacking right-backs in no time, but it should not be forgotten how young he is.
Whether fans like it or not, Alexander-Arnold is still going to have poor runs of form and he is still learning his trade.
Steven Gerrard had blips at 20 years of age, as did Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and many past young stars at Anfield.
Such is the scrutiny that players are under in the modern game, one bad performance is treated like a disaster, even in a glorified friendly such as the Community Shield.
We have to accept that these brilliant heroes in Red will not always perform to the best of their abilities, especially someone barely out of their teens.
Alexander-Arnold has made incredible strides for his boyhood club and he has every chance of being a future legend.
Does that mean he will always play well and avoid bad runs of form? Of course not.
But he has shown precisely why he is integral to this side and his rampaging runs down the right flank will be vital as Liverpool get their Premier League campaign underway.
