The world’s best right-back in December is only England’s fourth finest in March. Arguably, anyway, because both were a matter of opinion.
Rewind to the end of last year and Trent Alexander-Arnold was voted a member of the FIFPro XI for 2020. He had been the only full-back to figure on the 30-man shortlist for the Ballon d’Or in 2019, the last year it was held. He was entitled to call himself the best in his position in the game.
Gareth Southgate presumably disagrees. He selected three right-backs for England’s triple header against San Marino, Albania and Poland. Alexander-Arnold was not among them. Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker and Reece James were preferred.
Southgate can be England’s mild-mannered revolutionary, the eminently polite man who took the bold decisions to drop Wayne Rooney and Joe Hart, but this was a controversial call. Criticism has followed, most notably from Steven Gerrard. The presumption has to be that the Liverpool prodigy will miss Euro 2020.
Perhaps a pioneering force, the trailblazer for the right-backs who double as playmakers, the first full-back to register 25 assists over two Premier League seasons, came around too late. This was England’s problem position.
Glen Johnson was the only specialist right-back they took to either the 2010 or the 2014 World Cups. This, in contrast, is a period of rare riches. Aaron Wan-Bissaka is that anomaly, an uncapped Manchester United player. Tariq Lamptey was generating rave reviews at Brighton until he was injured. Southgate has namechecked Aston Villa's Matty Cash and Luke Ayling at Leeds.
And his views have changed. Trippier and Walker have both been dropped from the squad in the past, despite being stalwarts of the side who came fourth in the last World Cup. Each may owe his current status to a reversion from a back four to a back three and his versatility.
___________________________________________________________________
Player ratings: Wolves 0 Liverpool 1
___________________________________________________________________
Walker is in effect included as the right of three central defenders. Trippier was surprisingly deployed as a left wing-back in autumn. The emergence of James has felt a gamechanger: neither his red card for dissent against Denmark nor his lesser role since Thomas Tuchel took over at Chelsea has discouraged the England manager.
James’ and Trippier’s prowess as crossers mean they can offer some of the same attributes as the omitted Liverpudlian: the Atletico Madrid man’s set-pieces proved particularly productive for England in the World Cup.
Alexander-Arnold presents a puzzle: the outstanding attacking right-back of the last three years yet without having the same impact as a wing-back. Perhaps he is simply less accustomed to the role.
It is wrong to say, as some have, that he has never played well for England, but his outstanding display came against Switzerland in the 2019 Nations League as a right-back and it did not render him an automatic choice.
It is also wrong to suggest that Alexander-Arnold has been poor of late and indeed Southgate did not. "He's taken steps in the right direction," he said last week; performances against Leipzig, Sheffield United and Wolves have brought an improvement even if the depths of winter were the first extended blip of a precocious career. Southgate's was a reasonable assessment.
“Trent's very unfortunate but I don't think he's played to the level he has done for the past couple of years,” he said.
Discarding him, however, is a decision that could define England’s summer. It feels a waste of a wonderful talent, even if that has rarely seen in an England shirt.
But one way or another, it appears an indictment of Southgate, even if Alexander-Arnold’s sudden fall from grace is a reminder that many a Jurgen Klopp footballer looks a lesser player in another side.
