John Arne-Riise has slammed the decision to snub Liverpool duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson from the FIFA Best XI.
The former Reds’ hardman was shocked that Virgil van Dijk was beaten to the Best Player award, claiming that Barcelona’s Lionel Messi is the greatest of all time before admitting that if the Dutchman didn’t win it this year, a defender never will.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Tuesday, Arne-Riise was perplexed at the omission of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson from the Best XI, after Marcelo and Sergio Ramos beat them to a spot.
“I’m a massive Messi fan, best player ever!!” he said.
“But If Virgil van Dijk didn’t win it this year, a CB will never win it. And how on earth didn’t Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold get voted best LB and RB?”
I’m a massive Messi fan, best player ever!! But If @VirgilvDijk didn’t win it this year, a CB will never win it. And how on earth didn’t @andrewrobertso5 and @trentaa98 get voted best LB and RB? ?
— John Arne Riise (@JARiiseOfficial) September 24, 2019
OPINION
The decision to not include Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson in the best XI from last season is simply ludicrous. You will find it hard to find a partnership that thrived as much as the Reds’ duo in a single campaign than they did in both the Premier League and the Champions League last season. The Real Madrid defenders were involved in 18 defeats as they were comfortably beaten to the title by Barcelona in La Liga by 19 points in a season where they also conceded 71 goals. Compare that to Liverpool, who missed out on their first-ever Premier League title by a point and had the best defence in the league – it is hard to make a case for Marcelo and Ramos. The Liverpool duo also combined for 23 assists and became two of the best-attacking full-backs in the game, something the voting-players must not have appreciated in their decisions, as they stuck to the easy options of the experienced pair, even though they clearly struggled.
