Liverpool

Liverpool: Journalist drops verdict on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s England squad omission

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Image for Liverpool: Journalist drops verdict on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s England squad omission

Liverpool journalist Simon Hughes has been sharing his thoughts on Reds full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold and his recent omission from the latest England squad for their upcoming international fixtures. 

This comes after Hughes recently made an appearance on the latest episode of The Athletic’s Liverpool-themed podcast The Red Agenda, where he spoke about a range of subjects concerning the Merseyside club.

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On the subject of Gareth Southgate’s decision to not include Alexander-Arnold in his latest England squad for their opening European qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup against San Marino, Albania and Poland, Hughes had this to say on the matter.

He said: “I think it’s a bizarre decision, really. I think Trent, for me, if he’s playing well, and you’d expect him to finish the season strongly because I think he’s actually played well [in] the second half of the season since the Southampton game away.

“Liverpool had obviously a really bad period, but within that, I actually think he’s been pretty good. Defensively, he has had to think about a lot more with the changing of the partners to the left of him at centre-half – can’t be easy when you’re a marauding right-back who suddenly then has to start thinking a little bit more about their movement, but I think he’s actually dealt with it quite well.”

As a product of Liverpool’s youth system, Alexander-Arnold made his senior debut for the club back in October 2016.

Since then, the 22-year-old, who is currently valued at £90 million, has made 168 appearances for the Reds across all competitions in which he has managed to score nine goals and provide 40 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).

TIF Thoughts on Simon Hughes’ comments on Alexander-Arnold’s England omission…

With Southgate claiming that Alexander-Arnold hasn’t hit the level he has previously with Liverpool in an England shirt and the fact that the defender only managed to earn himself a disappointing overall performance rating of 6.28/10 for his three appearances for England’s UEFA Nations League group games during his last international outing (as per WhoScored), this probably points to why he has been left out of the squad this time around.

Do you think Alexander-Arnold should have been called up for England?

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Moving forward, if Alexander-Arnold wants to earn his place back in the England squad, he may have to get a good run of consistent performances for Liverpool under his belt, as he did in their previous Premier League game against Wolves that saw him get a solid match rating of 7.25/10.

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