England manager Gareth Southgate has delivered another brutal blow to Trent Alexander-Arnold, insisting Kieran Trippier's all-round game is 'ahead of' the Liverpool defender's.
Alexander-Arnold made the headlines while on international duty this week after he was one of five players cut from Southgate's squad for the Nations League finale against Germany on Monday evening.
The West-Derby star - who has won the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, League Cup, Super Cup and Club World Cup since making his Liverpool debut in 2016 - has repeatedly struggled to win over the assurances of the England manager since making his debut for the Three Lions back in 2018.
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Despite attending the Russia World Cup in 2018, just months after making his debut, the right-back has only won 17 caps in total and has largely been restricted to a place on the substitutes' bench during his international career, despite being recognised as one of the game's finest full-backs when sporting a Liverpool shirt.
However, just days after omitting the 23-year-old from the squad, along with James Ward-Prowse, Fikayo Tomori and Jarrod Bowen, Southgate has landed another cruel blow on Alexander-Arnold, insisting his overall game is not the best out of England's four right-back options.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Southgate said: “The other night [in Italy], we didn’t need the left-back cover, but against Germany we did because of the way we went with the team so we needed Chilly [Ben Chilwell] on the bench and we had Kieran who, at the moment, I feel his all-round game is ahead [of Trent]."
He added: “I didn’t want any player to sit in the stand for two matches, so I think the way we manage a group of people has been a big strength for us in the tournaments and we need to do that.”
This isn't the first time that Liverpool's No.66 has been the subject of international controversy, as Southgate dropped Alexander-Arnold from his squad in March 2021 after the Reds had lost six consecutive games at Anfield for the first time in Premier League history.
Following the snub, Alexander-Arnold's form would improve ten-fold as Jurgen Klopp's side finished an injury-stricken season in third place and qualified for the Champions League. And despite the right-back being at the heart of the Reds' late-season revival, with a stoppage-time winner against Aston Villa in April, Southgate still seemed to have suspicions over including him in his squad for that summer's European Championships.
Alexander-Arnold, after being named in the final 26-man squad, would not appear on the largely home-based edition of the tournament as he picked up a thigh injury in the Three Lions' final warm-up game in June 2021.
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