National media give verdict on Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold after England 1-2 Greece

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool are keeping a careful watch over their 16 senior players on international duty this week.

The Reds have had some worrying news in terms of injuries of late and the last thing they need are further problems while star players are away.

Alexis Mac Allister was ruled out of action for Argentina as they drew to Venezuela, but Thursday still saw five of the Liverpool squad in action.

One of those was Trent Alexander-Arnold, who’s start at right-back for England against Greece signalled something of a changing of the guard for the Three Lions.

So often benched for Kyle Walker since making his international debut in 2018, Alexander-Arnold played the full 90 minutes at right-back, with Walker an unused substitute.

Unfortunately, though, things did not go to plan for the Liverpool academy graduate and England. After a shock 2-1 defeat against Greece, the English national media have given their verdict on Trent’s display.

English media rate Trent Alexander-Arnold vs Greece

There’s no two ways about, England had bee expected to beat Greece relatively comfortably at Wembley.

Having fallen into the Nations League Group B with relegation last time out, the Three Lions should be dispatching every country they face, especially at home.

But England fell victim to a double from Vangelis Pavlidis, the winner coming in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

For Alexander-Arnold, it may have seemed a little like he had failed his audition to finally stamp his authority as England’s starting right-back.

READ MORE: Liverpool eyeing three right-backs to replace Trent Alexander-Arnold

But according to The Daily Mail, that was perhaps not the case. Rating him as a six out of ten, they claim that Liverpool’s No.66 was actually ‘England’s best’ player over the 90 minutes.

The Independent were not quite as kind, handing Alexander-Arnold a five out of ten and labelling him as ‘too lax defensively,’ including for Pavlidis’ winner. Given that Trent was nowhere near the action leading up to the goal, that seems incredibly harsh.

Finally, The Telegraph agree that a five out of ten rating was the order of the day, picking out one ‘lovely’ cross for Anthony Gordon as his best moment and suggesting that it was staying wide rather than inverting where Alexander-Arnold had more joy.

Who is in action on Friday?

With so many Liverpool players away this week, more will play on Friday.

Dominik Szoboszlai faces his raft of Dutch teammates as Hungary take on the Netherlands. All three of Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo are likely to start to the Oranje.

On-loan Giorgi Mamardashvili is set to start for Georgia as they take on Ukraine, with Alisson Becker’s current injury issue likely to mean greater attention from Liverpool fans on how Mamardashvili is doing.

Finally, in Africa, Mohamed Salah and Egypt take on Mauritania in their African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign.

So, a poor start to the international break for Alexander-Arnold, but at least Kostas Tsimikas was celebrating, even if he ultimately missed Thursday’s game through illness.