As the latest international break comes to an end, all Liverpool eyes will be on Trent Alexander-Arnold when the Reds return to action at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
An unused substitute in England’s Nations League loss to Italy last week, Gareth Southgate then left the defender out of his matchday squad entirely for the 3-3 draw with Germany. Subsequent comments from the Three Lions boss have seen him admit Reece James, Kieran Trippier and Kyle Walker are ahead of the Liverpool right-back in the pecking order, even going as far to claim they are better all-round players than the 23-year-old.
With England now not in action again until their World Cup opener against Iran on November 21, Alexander-Arnold, who has admittedly started the season out of form, is seemingly facing an uphill battle to win a place in Southgate’s squad for Qatar this winter.
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The Three Lions boss has to name his 26-man World Cup squad no later than November 13. While he initially named four right-backs, including the Liverpool man (before he was forced to withdraw because of injury) in his Euro 2020 squad last year, his latest comments have cast doubt on whether he plans to do the same in six weeks’ time.
Of course, plenty can happen before the Premier League’s mid-season break for the World Cup kicks in. Any of Alexander-Arnold’s rival right-backs could suffer an injury which sees him climb the pecking order as a result, or he could rediscover his top form and make it impossible for Southgate to leave him out.
With Liverpool playing 13 times over the next six weeks, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will be hoping for the latter following a below-par start to the season. But despite Alexander-Arnold not being at his best during the opening weeks of the campaign, eyebrows are likely to have been raised behind closed doors at the AXA Training Centre at Southgate’s latest stance and treatment of the defender. Yet this now feels all rather boringly familiar and predictable.
In truth, the 23-year-old’s latest international snub will only make him more determined to prove himself in the weeks ahead, with the German perhaps now anticipating an upturn in form from Alexander-Arnold. After all, that is exactly what happened the last time he was overlooked by the England boss.
While the defender has missed two international breaks and Euro 2020 through injury in the past year, the last time he was snubbed altogether was, coincidentally, also in the last break before a major international tournament. Alexander-Arnold was left out by Southgate altogether back in March 2021 as England's World Cup qualifying campaign got underway against San Marino, Albania and Poland, with their next camp coming the following June for the European Championships.
Such a snub was even more of a surprise than the defender’s latest international absence, but Southgate defended his decision.
"I don't think that Trent has played at the level that he found in the last couple of years but he's getting very close to that now," he said at the time. "In the last couple of weeks, he's definitely taken steps in the right direction.
"It's simply that we think Reece James and Kieran Trippier have had exceptional seasons with their clubs. Kyle Walker is in great form, too. I feel like I have got to look at myself a bit with Trent … I don’t feel that he has hit that level he’s hit with Liverpool here with England, and other players have.
“There is [only] a small opportunity in terms of our matches [for him to get back in] but there is a quarter of a season at club level. That includes some big Champions League games. That door is definitely open. I realistically did not think I would be sitting here today picking a squad with John Stones and Jesse Lingard in it.
“Trent is closer to this squad than they were to our autumn squads four months ago. What I’ve said to Trent earlier today is that I’ve made that same call to Kyle and Kieran in the past and their response was a good one and they’ve found themselves back in the squad.”
Unsurprisingly, Klopp was rather bemused at such comments and addressed them both at his pre-match press conference after the break and following Liverpool’s 3-0 victory away at Arsenal in which Alexander-Arnold starred.
"If Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the squad then England must have an extremely good squad," the German said. "I was surprised when he didn't get the call-up. I respect the decision, of course I do. But I didn't understand it.
"I respect that Gareth makes his own decisions, of course, but I didn't understand it anyway because Trent Alexander-Arnold was in the last two seasons at least, let me say the season before and the season before that, the stand out right-back in world football - that is the truth and at an unbelievable young age.
"He started the season with Covid and you can imagine it took him a while to get into the season, but from the moment when he was in the season he was one of our most consistent players and a stand-out player.
"He could play all the time, high level all these types of things, so that cannot be the reason that he was not in the squad."
Meanwhile, after beating Arsenal, Klopp told Sky Sports: “We scored these wonderful goals and Trent Alexander-Arnold showed his class, again. I don't want to make another discussion about Trent or stuff like that.
"I said it was Gareth [Southgate's] decision. He is blessed with the choice he has in that position especially but Trent is in a good shape. If somebody says he is not then I have to say he is wrong, that is all. I am not responsible for his decisions."
In an impressive display against the Gunners, Alexander-Arnold set up the opening goal with a superb first-time cross for Diogo Jota, while he played a part in creating the Portuguese's second and Liverpool’s third after winning the ball back high up the pitch.
He then followed that up with a memorable stoppage-time winner in front of the Kop against Aston Villa in Liverpool's next Premier League outing, to end the Reds' run of six consecutive home defeats, eight-game Anfield winless run and score their first goals in open play at home since December 27 - a run of 12 hours and 45 minutes and 132 shots since Sadio Mane scored against West Brom. They netted one penalty at their home ground in that time.
Alexander-Arnold and Liverpool bounced back from a dreadful start to 2021 to finish the 2020/21 season strongly and finish third against the odds, having previously looked almost certain to miss out on Champions League football. The right-back added a further assist in the Reds’ next Premier League outing, setting up Sadio Mane in a 1-1 draw with Leeds United, and would finish the campaign with one goal, four assists and four clean sheets from his last nine league outings.
Such form would result in his international recall ahead of Euro 2020, only for him to suffer a hamstring injury later on in England's first warm-up friendly against Austria which ruled him out of the tournament.
Admittedly, Alexander-Arnold was actually included in Southgate’s latest Three Lions overall squad, only to be reduced to bench duty before being left out entirely against Germany. But given his international manager’s most-recent comments, he has a point to prove all over again.
Yet, with England next in action in Qatar, like last year, he has no more auditions to impress Southgate before his squad is named. Only this time, despite a hefty run of fixtures, time is against the 23-year-old too with only six weeks to go until the mid-season break, in contrast to a near three-month run-in last time around.
Klopp is almost certain to comment on Alexander-Arnold’s international plight at his pre-match press conference before facing Brighton, and will be confident the best form from his defender is now just around the corner after his latest snub. But with the 23-year-old’s sidelining by Southgate hardly a new experience, while Liverpool might be about to benefit, whether the defender can play his way back into World Cup contention remains up for debate.
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