England haven’t had the best of international breaks so far.
A dismal loss to Hungary has been followed up by a very unconvincing draw against Germany on Tuesday evening.
The Three Lions looked bereft of any creativity for the most part at the Allianz Arena, and according to Gary Lineker, there is a simple explanation for this.
Indeed, the Match of the Day host reckons that England’s creativity problems were largely down to the fact that their best passer – Trent Alexander-Arnold was stuck on the bench while England struggled to make anything happen in the final third.
Lineker reckons that Alexander-Arnold is the best passer of a ball in the English game, and it’s hard to disagree.
The right-back can work wonders with the ball, whether he’s out wide, central, deep or advanced, and against Germany, England really missed a player like that.
Of course, the Three Lions’ struggles this week go beyond just Alexander-Arnold’s absence. After all, he did appear in the loss against Hungary, but you have to feel that he could have contributed against Germany on Tuesday.
Luckily, these games were only in the Nations League, but if Gareth Southgate leaves himself open for this type of criticism in Qatar, there could be some real questions for the England manager to answer.
Alexander-Arnold provides something that no other England player does, and Southgate has to find a way to utilise that.
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