Robbie Fowler has explained how Trent Alexander-Arnold should be utilised by Gareth Southgate at the European Championships.
The Liverpool ace started in midfield for England’s first two games of the tournament in Germany but has been dropped for tonight’s clash with Slovenia in Cologne.
Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher has been selected ahead of the Scouser in midfield but ex-Red Fowler can’t understand why Alexander-Arnold is not being deployed at right wing-back.
“The best managers build teams that are better than the sum of their parts,” Fowler told the Daily Mirror (via The Kop Times).
“And if it ain’t working, then they fix it. Trent Alexander-Arnold is a case in point. Gareth doesn’t fancy Trent at full-back because he feels he has better options in Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier.
“But the gamble of crowbarring Trent in alongside Declan Rice in midfield hasn’t worked. If anything, an elite pivot has to be even more switched on defensively than a full-back because their role is to read where danger is coming from and plug the gap before trouble is allowed to escalate.”
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“It’s a specialist job. Asking TAA to do that when, in my opinion, he is one of the best right-backs in the game, seems strange to say the least,” he added.
“Trent HAS to play. Surely the answer is to deploy him as a wing-back, with Walker, John Stones and Marc Guehi stiffening the centre of defence.”
England’s squad is stacked with talent but Southgate can of course only select 11 players.
For Alexander-Arnold to be left out of the side is baffling however, when you consider the ability he has to calve open defences with his passing ability and his world-class quality from set-pieces.
Our No.66 impressed on a number of occasions last term when he was selected in midfield by Jurgen Klopp but he’s made his name as a right back ever since his senior Liverpool debut in 2016.
That’s where Fowler believes the Englishman’s future lies – or in a slightly more advanced wing-back role – but it remains to be seen what plans the Three Lions boss has for the remainder of the tournament.
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