Trent Alexander-Arnold England snub explained as Thomas Tuchel hits back

by · Liverpool Echo

Trent Alexander-Arnold England snub explained as Thomas Tuchel hits back

Former Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold has been omitted from Thomas Tuchel’s last England squad before this summer’s World Cup

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Trent Alexander-Arnold was omitted from the latest England squad for sporting reasons. Although the former Liverpool defender has impressed in recent weeks, he did not make Tuchel’s expanded 35-man group for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.

Alexander-Arnold has not played for England since a 1-0 win over Andorra in June, and explaining his decision to leave the Real Madrid decision out, Tuchel said: “Tough decision for Trent, as it is for Ollie Watkins and Luke Shaw. These decisions come with the job. It's a sporting decision.

“Tino Livramento and Djed Spence can play for us on the right, Dominic Solanke and Dominic Calvert-Lewin can play up front.

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“I have a very clear picture of what Ollie can give us, so I want to have a look at two other players to get a better picture and have a clearer opinion.

“The right-backs (we have) offer slightly different profiles (to Alexander-Arnold), the evidence is we were good in September-November than anything from Trent.

“I played many times against him and suffered many times when he played against my teams. I know very well his strengths and what he can give.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold has been left out the England squad despite some impressive displays of late for Real Madrid(Image: (Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images))

Elsewhere in the squad, which includes no Liverpool players, Kobbie Mainoo, Harry Maguire and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have all returned from the international wilderness, while James Garner and Jason Steele received their first call-ups.

“Happy and excited to be back, happy also to be back soon on the pitch and have two matches before we finally go to the World Cup,” Tuchel said. “It's a moment to acknowledge that the March camp is unique in itself.

“The reality is we have two friendly matches, our players are in a crucial moment in the club football season, they are fighting for titles, relegation battles, knockout and cup matches, a very stressful moment of the season.

It has been nearly five years since Dominic Calvert-Lewin last played for England(Image: Alex Pantling - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

“But it is also our last camp, the last opportunity to impress, to compete for their ticket. It's a mix of motives and headlines for this camp. To get the best out of this camp we decided to split it in two camps.

“We invited 19 outfielders and four goalkeepers into the first part of the camp, to give them a real chance to impress, to compete for minutes against Uruguay.

“From Friday evening/Saturday morning, 11 players will join us in camp and we will then release some players to have a group of 21-22 outfield players, plus goalkeepers, to prepare professionally and with full focus for the Japan match.”

Thomas Tuchel and Bukayo Saka in England training(Image: Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)

Before he added: “It's no secret. The players know: it's Dean Henderson, Dan Burn, Marc Guehi, Ezri Konsa, Nico O'Reilly, Elliot Anderson, Declan Rice, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane and Bukayo Saka.

“All of these guys have played 3,500-plus minutes, some of them have 4,000 minutes. More important than the pure number of minutes is that some of these guys have already played more than in all of last season and there is still a lot of football to play.

“All of these players have contributed in September, October and November — so they have credit with me. We will benefit from giving them a break physically and mentally.”

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