Garth Crooks gets weird about Liverpool again in TOTW picks

One regular week of Garth Crooks. That's all I ask for. Will never happen.

We regret to inform you that the BBC Sport Team of the Week picker is still, very much, at it.

Little over a month on from Crooks selecting Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk in his XI following their impressive displays in the 2-0 win over Everton and then using his word count to talk about anything but their performances, the 65-year-old has gone similarly rogue on Liverpool topics once again.

After the Reds battled back from a goal down to draw 1-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, Trent Alexander-Arnold was the only one of Jurgen Klopp's team to earn a place in the BBC pundit's picks (right side of a back three, because it's Garth).

On the Liverpool right back's display in which he netted the equaliser, Crooks was highly complimentary, writing: "With the exception of Kevin de Bruyne, there can't be a cleaner striker of a ball anywhere in the Premier League than Trent Alexander-Arnold. Erling Haaland will almost always find the corner of the net but his strikes are nothing like as clean as Alexander-Arnold's.

"The Liverpool defender is a throwback to the days when former greats like Chris Lawler and Alec Lindsey not only loved to get into the attacking third of the pitch and score goals, but struck the ball just as sweetly."

For younger readers, Lawler and Lindsay were full backs for the Reds in the 60s and 70s.

So far, so good then.

Sadly, Crooks didn't leave it there and padded out his Alexander-Arnold section with a dig at the Reds' number nine – who clashed with Pep Guardiola after the final whistle on Saturday.

He wrote: "This was a good performance by Liverpool at Manchester City, although Darwin Nunez tried his best to spoil it. "Nunez should really spend his time concentrating on why he's not scoring more goals instead of picking fights and venting his frustrations with the opposition manager because he's been substituted."

While Nuñez is without a Liverpool goal in his last four outings, he does have seven in all competitions for the Reds so far in 2023/24, as well as five assists.

The 24-year-old also featured at the Etihad just three days after scoring a double for Uruguay in a 3-0 win over Bolivia in CONMEBOL World Cup 2026 qualification.

Last week, the Reds' beloved chaos machine took centre stage as he scored the second in his country's historic 2-0 win over world champions Argentina.

How many other forwards could go from ruining Messi's weekend to starting a scrap with Pep in just a few days?

Don't listen to Garth, Darwin. Never change.