Gareth Southgate announced his England squad for the upcoming international friendly, in which Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander-Arnold have been selected.
The lack of game time for our No.66 has been a huge topic for debate amongst Liverpool and England supporters, with many pundits calling for the Liverpool-born defender to be handed more caps.
There is an undoubted selection headache for the England manager who listed his current right-back options as: Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier, Reece James, Tino Livramento, Tariq Lamptey, Max Aarons and also commented on losing Matty Cash to Poland (the omission of Aaron Wan-Bissaka from the list was telling too).
When asked specifically what the Scouser in our team needs to do to get into his, the ex-Middlesbrough manager said: “They have to defend well, first and foremost, that’s the bedrock of our team and we’ve only conceded five goals in 18 matches, so defensively we’ve not been doing a lot wrong.
“In my opinion that is the first job of a defender, you’ve got to defend well.
“If then we’ve got good quality with the ball as well and we can create chances, then that’s an added bonus”.
It seems clear that the lack of opportunity for the man acclaimed as the best right-back in the world by many, is that the 51-year-old international manager doesn’t trust him defensively.
The best part of our right-backs game is undoubtedly his delivery into the box and wide array of passing but it doesn’t appear to be enough to get him into his national team.
You can watch the full clip from the press conference here, courtesy of Sky Sports:
"We've got fantastic competition for that place."
After Trent Alexander-Arnold was recalled to the latest England squad, Gareth Southgate talks about the options he has at right-back…
Who should be England's first choice? pic.twitter.com/4RDKcJ8XoP
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 4, 2021
Southgate is spot on. TAA is a weak inconsistent defender in defensive situations. He’s the best right sided midfielder/ winger.