Southgate doesn’t like him”- Former PL defender says he doesn’t see Liverpool star playing at 2022 FIFA World Cup

Former Liverpool defender Jose Enrique believes England manager Gareth Southgate does not trust Trent Alexander-Arnold

Former Liverpool defender Jose Enrique, while answering a question about England’s full-backs options via his Twitter, believes that England manager Gareth Southgate does not trust Trent Alexander-Arnold enough for him to get minutes in the tournament.

Trent was chosen in the official England squad for the FIFA World Cup but has not featured in the nation’s first two group-stage games, with Kieran Trippier being preferred over the Liverpool man.

Enrique claims that Trent is not in Southgate’s immediate plans and hence does not see much involvement for the player in the tournament. Despite England’s clear struggles to break down the USA in their World Cup group-stage clash, Trent remained on the bench.

Replying to a question which asked Liverpool fans if they saw Trent getting any minutes in Qatar, the former Newcastle United and LFC left-back replied:

“I don’t believe he will. I believe obviously trippier is ahead and Kyle walker been fit now is ahead too. Southgate doesn’t like him he even made it [sic.] public that so don’t know why to take him to not [sic.] play him at all.”

There were doubts before the official squad was announced about whether Trent will make the team after having a disappointing start to the season.

More notably, he was not used by Southgate in the nation’s last official games in the UEFA Nations League, which further propagated the fact that Trent is not seen as a viable option by Southgate.

Many claims that Reece James’s injury paved the way for Trent to make the official squad could be deemed as true and Trent has only made it to the squad in case of another injury to one of the fullbacks.

There is no doubt of the ability that Trent possesses with the ball but his off-the-ball defending has been questioned in recent times and rightly so.

More often than not, Trent has seen a fair share of criticism for failing to do the first duty of a fullback, which is to defend and one can say that it is this particular trait which is curbing his progress toward being a world-class defender.

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With time on his side and the guidance of a top coach in Jurgen Klopp, it would not be long before he improves certain aspects of the game but there is no doubt that if he is able to work on his weaknesses, there is no better right-back in the country.