Plenty of right-backs availableAlexander-Arnold may still get chanceMust improve on past Three Lions’ form
WHAT HAPPENED? With England’s tournament opener against Iran swiftly approaching, the right-sided defender has accepted that he’s never truly shone for his national team but he believes that the best is yet to come.
WHAT THEY SAID: Speaking to ITV Football, Alexander-Arnold said of his England career: “Not the best football I’ve ever played. Probably not the worst either, just somewhere in the middle, that is not amazing, not the worst really. It could be a lot better.”
He was then asked if he’d been playing at the level he would have hoped to. The defender replied: “No. Definitely not. But when you think about it, it’s been maybe 17 or 18 games [for England] now. And I think, in the grand scheme of things, that’s half a season, if you’re going to put it in that sense and players have average half-seasons. Hopefully, the second half of the season will be a lot better for me.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Key right-back Reece James will miss Qatar through injury, and so Alexander-Arnold has been bumped up the pecking order. However, Gareth Southgate has tended to trust others ahead of the Liverpool man, such as Kieran Trippier, and so it’s unlikely he will start against Iran in England’s first game – especially amid some questionable recent form with Liverpool.
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WHAT NEXT FOR ENGLAND? Southgate also has Arsenal’s Ben White as an option at right-back and so if Alexander-Arnold does take to the pitch for his 18th cap he will have to impress more than he has done in the past.
