Trent Alexander-Arnold has been under real pressure over the past few months and from being England’s first-choice right-back, the youngster can’t even make it into the squad.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was recently left out of the England squad during the international break and immediately there were questions about his chances of playing in the EURO. And honestly, he did not help his cause one bit after his error-ridden performance against Real Madrid last week.
But he managed to lay all the criticism to bed this weekend with a top-class display against Aston Villa, scoring a world-class winner in the 91st minute. And quite fittingly, the right-back sent out a cheeky message on social media right after the game.
Are you not entertained!? 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/xpdQjfJeWg
— Trent Alexander-Arnold (@TrentAA) April 10, 2021
A number of pundits think Trent Alexander-Arnold has been rejuvenated thanks to all the criticism surrounding his England selection but according to Jurgen Klopp, the 22-year-old should only be allowed to do what he does best.
The manager said after the win: “I know there is [a debate], it’s no problem. For the player, he’s not really bothered about the discussion around this: he wants to be in the squad, I think that’s clear.
“But I really think we don’t have to talk too much about it. He is a wonderful player, I think we all agree, Gareth [Southgate] agrees, a really wonderful player and a manager has to make a decision.
“We respect that, Trent respects that, and to be in the squad for England you have to play outstanding football. Trent did this very, very often in a very young age, so there is just nothing really to talk about.
“There will be tough decisions, not only in that position, in the summer for Gareth, just like I have to make tough decisions every day. But that’s normal in the job [and] we don’t have to talk about it. Just leave the boy playing football, what he is pretty good in, and don’t talk anymore about it because in the end it’s like a made-up story, if you want. In the first moment if somebody asks you can answer, meanwhile we make it a little bit up and we should not do that.
“I don’t think Trent is in a situation where he has to prove himself constantly on this level, he just has to play good football and he has to prove himself and challenge himself and all these kind of things, but not because of the national team.”
We doubt if one performance will be good enough to change Gareth Southgate’s mind, especially since he has so many options at right-back. Trent Alexander-Arnold has to be at the top of his game for every game, until the end of the season and maybe then he could be getting a ticket to the Euros in the summer.
