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Topics: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, England, Gareth Southgate
Ryan Sidle
Topics: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool, England, Gareth Southgate
Trent Alexander-Arnold missed out on England's Nations League loss to Germany on Monday night, and the decision was explained by Gareth Southgate.
Alexander-Arnold's form has been imperative to Liverpool's success in the past few years but he hasn't been able to get into the England team regularly.
He missed out on last week's loss to Italy, starting on the bench and not getting brought on, something that Gary Lineker believed was a huge mistake.
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Whilst Trent's defensive acumen has been brought into question, Lineker believed that the full back's creative qualities were missing from the loss.
After not playing against Italy, fans might have been expecting to get a glimpse of the 23-year-old on Monday, at Wembley, in the game against Germany.
However, they were left disappointed when Southgate didn't give him the chance to play at all, leaving the full back, and Fikayo Tomori, out of the 23 man squad completely.
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The England boss picked a larger squad for the two games, meaning he had to leave some players off the bench, but he has at least explained why Alexander-Arnold was one of them.
"I mean, we’ve got a big squad with us and we’ve got four right-backs who are super quality," the former Middlesbrough boss told Channel Four.
"At the moment Kieran Trippier is playing exceptionally well and Reece James has been one of the outstanding players in the Premier League at the start of the season.
"But Trent is a very, very good footballer and that’s why we picked him in the [initial] squad."
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Southgate certainly has a plethora of right backs to choose from and he has often played three at a time, with one at left back and one at the right of three centre backs.
On Monday he only picked Reece James to start, with Kyle Walker coming on for John Stones in the first half, and the Chelsea man certainly delivered.
James' cross set up Luke Shaw for England's first goal in open play in over 300 minutes, which kicked off a ridiculous 12 minutes of football.
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The Three Lions had been 2-0 down, in part thanks to some poor defending from the much criticised Harry Maguire, before his Manchester United teammate pulled one back.
Mason Mount then equalised, after great work from fellow sub Bukayo Saka, before Harry Kane's penalty, after Jude Bellingham was fouled made it 3-3.
Ultimately it wasn't enough, as Kai Havertz grabbed an equaliser after Nick Pope had spilled a shot from Serge Gnabry from the edge of the area.
The draw certainly left fans feeling more optimistic that they were before kick off and the result might be enough for Southgate to continue leaving out Alexander-Arnold, even for his squad for the World Cup.