England’s midfielders ‘won’t be happy’ to see Trent Alexander-Arnold starting ahead of them at Euro 2024, Roy Keane has claimed.
The Three Lions kicked-off their Euros tournament with a 1-0 victory over Serbia on Sunday night, but it was hardly a convincing performance.
Among the points of contention was the use of right-back Alexander-Arnold in the midfield pivot alongside Declan Rice.
The Liverpool star’s range of passing and vision has always been widely praised though he does have limitations defensively which contributed to England’s nervy showing against Serbia.
The question of who should partner Rice has been long debated, with Conor Gallagher, Kobbie Mainoo and Adam Wharton the other options, while Jude Bellingham can drop deeper as well but is preferred at No.10.
The jury remains out on whether Alexander-Arnold can handle the positional change, but Keane believes that Gareth Southgate’s choice to start him will cause friction among the England camp.
‘If you’re a midfielder in that squad and you see a right-back getting ahead of you in international football, you wouldn’t be happy,’ the former Manchester United and Ireland star said on ITV.
Fellow pundits Gary Neville and Ian Wright concurred and suggested the Southgate could and perhaps should change things up for the next game against Denmark on Thursday evening.
‘I think Gareth wants to get Gallagher into the team. He is obviously going to make unpopular decisions, he is not scared of it,’ former United and England defender Neville said.
‘But I think there is an element of wanting to get Gallagher in but he knows it will be deemed as being quite negative. He has not gone for Mainoo.’
Arsenal and England icon Wright added: ‘You have to mention Wharton. Someone like him who can play on that half-turn, at some stage you have to look at him.’
Alexander-Arnold was replaced by Chelsea’s Gallagher in the 69th minute but Southgate himself said he was pleased with the 25-year-old’s ‘good’ performance.
‘I have to say that he’s been really diligent in getting his positioning right, balancing off, obviously Jude goes forward a lot, so I thought Trent adapted and adjusted to his positioning really well,’ the Three Lions boss said.
‘He used the ball well, obviously had a good effort on goal. In the end we wanted some fresh legs in there and Conor can obviously get to the ball quickly and we’ve got a squad and we need to use it.’
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