Gareth Southgate has left Trent Alexander-Arnold out of his England squad to face Germany tonight - just one day after detailing the decisions surrounding the right-back position and 'risks' involved.
The Liverpool star has been away on international duty with the Three Lions, but he was an unused substitute during Friday's 1-0 defeat to Italy at the San Siro. There had been serious doubts as to whether the 23-year-old would be involved in Southgate's plans for the World Cup later this year, with a mass of competition in that area - Reece James, Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier are also all involved.
And now Alexander-Arnold's England future is again in doubt, with Southgate opting against seeing any of the full-back during the final international break before November's trip to Qatar. The young defender's last full 90 minutes with his country came last November, in a 10-0 World Cup qualifying win over San Marino. However, due to form and injury, the Liverpool star has played just once in the seven England matches since.
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He, along with Jack Grealish (suspended), Jarrod Bowen, Fikayo Tomori and James Ward-Prowse have all been dropped for tonight's Nations League clash at Wembley - all but Grealish were also unused in Friday's trip to Italy.
Southgate has been speaking over the weekend about the “risks” of playing Alexander-Arnold in his team, and explained why he has to make a decision regarding which right-back to play, not just the Liverpool defender.
"I don't see risks. You can have a style of play and a way of playing, and a balance to the team, that... at Liverpool they find a way of playing that brings the best out of his attributes and that's what we're all trying to do with every team,” Southgate told The Mirror.
"You're trying to build a team that accentuates the positives, and within the group protects yourselves against how the opponents might come from you.
"He does have a fantastic range of passing, we're blessed with different profiles of player in that position, if we play with wing-backs, Trippier and Reece James are also exceptional with the ball, in different ways, and we're always having to look at the full package with everything.
"If you assess the players on all of their attributes, they've all been to Champions League finals, some of them have been to latter stages of major tournaments with us, Trent's won the league, Trippier's won the Spanish league, Walker's won the English league.
"There are so many good attributes about them, it's a really difficult position to make decisions on, but we have to go with the ones we believe, and ultimately I'll be judged on the outcome, as we know."
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