Gareth Southgate joked he would select more right-backs in England s Euro 2020 squad if he could, after four players who fill the role were picked in his 26-man pool.
Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Reece James and – despite several media reports to the contrary – Trent Alexander-Arnold were selected in England s squad for the tournament, which starts on June 11.
Liverpool defender Alexander-Arnold missed out on the March internationals and reports suggested he would be the biggest name to be cut from England s provisional squad.
Asked to explain his decision, Southgate told a news conference: We went through this last week, yes we have four players who play sometimes at right-back for their clubs, Kieran, Reece have been playing wing-back or right of a three, Trent plays at right-back, Kyle Walker has played in the right of a three for us.
Basically they re in our best 26 footballers and if I could have picked a fifth or a sixth right-back, I probably would have done!
Alexander-Arnold has won acclaim for his attacking qualities, and Southgate last week said he felt the 22-year-old, who has 12 caps, could be versatile enough to play in midfield.
Pressed on that suggestion in Tuesday s media conference, Southgate said: We re here to play nine games and we already have some injury doubts, I m sure we re going to face other difficulties in the next four or five weeks.
We need adaptability, good professionals, tactically savvy players – we re fortunate we ve got old and young players who fit all of those categories.
Your squad for !
— England (@England)
There can be little doubt over his proficiency going forward, though there has been debate over Alexander-Arnold s defensive abilities.
In the Premier League, he made three errors leading to shots and one that led to a goal in the season just ended, whereas James and Walker made no such mistakes.
Trippier, who helped Atletico Madrid win LaLiga, made just one error that led to a shot. Alexander-Arnold s tackle success rate (58.9 per cent) was below that of each of his rivals for the England role (Walker 65.5 per cent; Trippier 63.9; James 63.6), and he was part of a Liverpool team that conceded a goal on average once every 76 minutes when he featured.
Trippier, a key part of Atleti s tight-knit defence, could point to the new Spanish champions conceding only once per 191 minutes when he was on the pitch.
In Alexander-Arnold s defence, he played far more minutes in league games than each of his rivals (3,033 next most is Trippier with 2,477), and Liverpool s backline frailties were to a large extent affected by the injuries that kept Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip out for much of the season.
Should Alexander-Arnold indeed be utilised as an alternative midfield option, it may go some way to support Southgate s reasoning for leaving out Jesse Lingard.
Out of favour at Manchester United, the midfielder enjoyed a brilliant loan spell at West Ham, scoring nine goals in 16 league appearances as David Moyes team secured European football for next season.
Jesse s done incredibly well to get back in the race. Back in January he was a million miles away from being selected for an England squad, Southgate said.
He had a good spell with West Ham, he s been a player who s played so well for us with England, we ve got total trust in the way he plays, he s reliable, a great member of the group.
He will play tomorrow [in the friendly against Austria] because we ve got [Jadon] Sancho ill and we ve got a lot of players not available and for the balance of the team he ll start, so he deserves that opportunity to go and show me that I m wrong, straight away!
