Regardless of omitting Trent Alexander-Arnold from England’s closing recreation earlier than the World Cup, Gareth Southgate insists the right-back is just not out of his plans.
Southgate sparked headlines on Monday morning when it emerged that Alexander-Arnold had been not noted of his 23-man squad to tackle Germany at Wembley.
The fitting-back had gone unused all through the 1-0 defeat to Italy three days earlier, and his absence from the matchday group has led many to consider he is not going to head to the World Cup in Qatar.
There may be nonetheless a convincing case to consider that he gained’t make the aircraft, with Southgate seemingly preferring Kieran Trippier, Reece James and Kyle Walker, however the England supervisor has denied he’s out of the working.
“We’ve received a giant squad with us and we’ve received 4 right-backs who’re tremendous high quality,” he informed Channel 4 earlier than the 3-3 draw on Monday.
“In the intervening time, Keiran Trippier is taking part in exceptionally nicely and Reece James has been one of many excellent gamers within the league firstly of the season.
“However we all know Trent is a really, superb footballer and that’s why we’ve picked him within the squad.”
Alexander-Arnold was not the one participant to be minimize from one recreation and watch from the bench for one more, with Ivan Toney, Ben Chilwell, Marc Guehi, Fikayo Tomori, Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse in the identical state of affairs.
A complete of 16 gamers featured over the 2 ties, which served as the ultimate warmup earlier than the World Cup, whereas 5 others – Trippier, Aaron Ramsdale, Dean Henderson, Conor Coady and Tammy Abraham – have been unused substitutes for each video games.
“We’ve received a number of good gamers on the bench, however we thought tonight we needed to maneuver the bench round somewhat bit,” Southgate continued.
“As a result of I didn’t need gamers sat within the stands for 2 video games on the spin.
“We took a giant group, which has been nice on the coaching floor and dealing with the gamers, and we needed to maintain all of them concerned, principally.”
With a 26-man squad to be named for the World Cup in November, there’s nonetheless scope for Alexander-Arnold to be included, however with James beginning in opposition to each Italy and Germany, his place is on no account assured.
