Trent Alexander-Arnold will be one of world's best midfielders - but Gary Lineker's still right

Harry Redknapp says Trent Alexander-Arnold may well become one of the best midfielders in the world in time but has branded Gareth Southgate’s decision to start him in-field for England so soon as “strange”.

Alexander-Arnold has played a hybrid role over the past 18 months at Liverpool, drifting into the pivot role from right-back. However, he had only started in midfield a handful of times prior to his Euro 2024 outings.

The Liverpool star has been criticised for his England displays in the role, having been brought off before full-time in both group games so far. He is expected to be dropped for this evening’s final group match with Slovenia.

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Gary Lineker believes Alexander-Arnold has been left in the lurch, after Southgate had called his stints in midfield “an experiment”. “I do feel a bit for Trent Alexander-Arnold,” Lineker said.

“I feel like he’s been hung out to dry a little bit. His manager’s said he’s an experiment and now it looks like an experiment that doesn’t work.”

Speaking to the Liverpool ECHO, courtesy of Sorare, former Tottenham manager Redknapp said he agreed with Lineker’s comments and outlined how Alexander-Arnold was put in a difficult situation.

Asked whether he concurred with Lineker’s assessment, Redknapp said: “A little bit, yeah for sure.

“I could never see him play in central midfield at the moment - in a year’s time he might become one of the best central midfield players in the world.

“He’s an outstanding right-back, real talent. But playing in midfield is very different to playing right-back. A completely different game. When you're right-back you have the whole game in front of you, you see the whole field.

“When you play in midfield you have to have eyes in the back of your head. I was really surprised that Gareth ever played him in that central position.

“But it ain’t just his fault, we’ve not played well, six or seven players have not played well. It was a strange decision to play him there in the first place, for a boy who's played there only on a few occasions.”

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