Liverpool and Klopp will quietly celebrate today’s news about ‘ridiculously gifted’ player – RTK View

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England axing Trent Alexander-Arnold will hurt for the player but Liverpool may not mind. The Reds may even cross their fingers for more.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the England squad to face Germany this week. Gareth Southgate has left him out, seemingly not finding a place for the Liverpool right-back.

It’s both a surprise and not a shock at all. Alexander-Arnold, on the one hand, is a sensational player who should be in every international squad as a default. Conversely, the rhetoric around the 24-year-old is such that he’s become a strange talking point in English football.

Despite winning everything by 24 as a critical player in an elite side, Alexander-Arnold doesn’t boast a reputation as one of England’s best. He’s often criticised for his lack of defensive skills that allow teams to create against Liverpool easily. How the Reds managed to overcome that clear and obvious weak link to boast the best defence in the country last season is a mystery. Let alone that they also managed it in 2019 and 2020.

It’s almost like Alexander-Arnold’s defensive woes are enormously exaggerated. But maybe that’s just us – and Jurgen Klopp and the Liverpool coaching staff and seemingly every major ex-pro who talks up the right-back.

In fact, we think the Reds may even be celebrating this news.

England axing Trent Alexander-Arnold

There’s now a very good chance that Alexander-Arnold misses the World Cup. That’s the apparent message from Gareth Southgate – the Scouser isn’t at the forefront of his plans.

Liverpool would love this. Of course, they want the best for their player and wish to see him thrive. But the World Cup falls slap, bang in the middle of the season this year. It will leave many of the game’s stars absolutely exhausted for the second half of the season.

Thus anyone who doesn’t go gets the opposite. They get a month-long break in which they can rest – a break they don’t usually get, especially in English football.

Liverpool have several players like that. Joel Matip won’t go as he’s retired from the Cameroonian national team. Mohamed Salah, Luis Diaz and Andy Robertson will miss the tournament as Egypt, Colombia and Scotland didn’t qualify.

Add Alexander-Arnold to that and suddenly Liverpool have four vital players getting a mid-season break. Both of their wings, in fact, will be in great shape. If they can position themselves correctly before then, the conditions are there for an assault on silverware.