England manager Thomas Tuchel has explained his decision to not call up Trent Alexander-Arnold to the squad for the couple of friendlies they will play against Uruguay and Japan on March 27 (tonight at 19:45 GMT) and March 31. The right-back was a surprise omission, despite Tuchel making a larger than usual list of 35 players. And when Jarell Quansah left the call due to a knee injury, Tuchel chose to call up Ben White instead of the Real Madrid right-back.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Tuchel defended his decision, based on a different and "very intense" game model that may not be best suited for him. "We created a slightly different game model when he was not in camp in September, October, November. It was a game model built on intensity, built on positivity, built on even like in the profile of the right full-back on overlaps, on underlaps, very intense."
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Tuchel explains that it was "a very hard decision" and he took it on his chin, and added that "he was with us in June and he should have maybe deserved a second chance."
For now, Tuchel says that Trent is "on the long list and everyone is still in the mix. But at the moment, some other guys are just ahead of him". He did say, however, that he will "make sure to watch some matches from Real Madrid, maybe a Champions League match live to get my last impressions".
Extra motivation for Trent Alexander-Arnold, whose first season in Madrid has been uneven and with frequent absences due to injuries, but played one of his finest games in the derby against Atlético de Madrid last week.