Gareth Southgate explains decision to leave Trent Alexander-Arnold out of England squad. Trent Alexander-Arnold was not included in the matchday squad for England’s match against Germany on Monday night, but Gareth Southgate feels there is still a chance he will be included in the team for the World Cup later this year.
The Liverpool defender, who missed the 2018 Euros due to injury, has only played once for his country so far in 2022, and he did not play against Italy in Friday’s loss at the San Siro.
Despite Kyle Walker dropping out of the starting lineup, Alexander-Arnold was one of four players—along with Fikayo Tomori, Jarrod Bowen, and James Ward-Prowse—who did not make the 23-man roster on Monday.
But Southgate gave a firm ‘no’ when it was suggested that the Liverpool star’s World Cup hopes may be dwindling and insists his latest snub was simply down to Reece James and Kieran Tripper being in better form.
Gareth Southgate explains decision to leave Trent Alexander-Arnold out of England squad. Asked about Alexander-Arnold’s omission, Southgate told Channel 4: ‘I mean, we’ve got a big squad with us and we’ve got four right-backs who are super quality.
‘At the moment Kieran Trippier is playing exceptionally well and Reece James has been one of the outstanding players in the Premier League at the start of the season.
Trent is, nonetheless, a very, very talented football player, which is why we chose to include him in the [first] team.
John Stones was selected in the right center back position, and Luke Shaw, who was added in Milan, started in place of Bukayo Saka at left wing-back. Southgate chose a similar lineup to the one that fell short to Italy.
There are a few solid possibilities for left-back for us. Luke had a good entry into the game the previous night, and tonight is a wonderful opportunity for him. He is a terrific player, according to Southgate.
‘We thought [Eric Dier] coming back into the side did really well and we wanted to keep that momentum going. He hasn’t been with us for a while.
‘John [Stones] is fresh but Kyle [Walker] has been out for a while so we felt it made sense to freshen that up tonight.
‘We wanted to move the bench around a bit tonight. We took a big group, which has been great on the training pitch.’
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