Declan Rice has launched a passionate defence of Trent Alexander-Arnold after he received criticism for his displays in midfield for England.

With Gareth Southgate feeling as though he has no natural replacement for Kalvin Phillips, his solution has been to deploy Alexander-Arnold alongside Declan Rice in England's first two group games.

Southgate has called the move "an experiment" and praised many elements of the Liverpool star's game.

However, he has been replaced by Conor Gallagher in both games and a number of pundits and fans have called for the experiment to be abandoned in the final group game against Slovenia on Tuesday.

Image: Getty

But while there have been question marks as to whether Alexander-Arnold can play in central midfield, Rice fired back in an interview with ITV.

Asked by Gabriel Clarke about fans wondering how England could go into a tournament "experimenting in midfield", Rice replied: "It's funny because people were calling for Trent to play in midfield.

"Half the country are calling for Trent to play in midfield. You play him in midfield and you want to bring him down. I don't get it. I don't get it at all.

"I'll defend all of my boys until I never put on an England shirt. Trent is one of the best players I've ever seen.

"Don't call for someone to play in a position and then backtrack all because you think he's had a bad game or something. I'll tell you now, Trent can play in midfield.

"I've seen it at England, I've seen it for Liverpool. He's unbelievable. That's what I say to the people that you see say this type of stuff."

Rice always stressed that England do have the right players to control games and also hit out at pundits who slammed England's display against Denmark.

The Arsenal midfield called for more positivity going into the final group game in Cologne.

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