Trent Alexander-Arnold feat proves yet again Gareth Southgate was utterly wrong

International football means different things to different people. For many supporters of club teams, it is an inconvenience which puts their heroes at risk of injury. For many players, it is the pinnacle of their career to be selected to represent their country.

It isn’t for everyone. Arsenal defender Ben White has asked to not be contacted by England , like a disgruntled shopper wearily agreeing to terms and conditions on a website. His positional colleague Trent Alexander-Arnold is another player who has a weird relationship with international football.

Or far more accurately, it – or at least former England manager Gareth Southgate – has a weird relationship with him . Alexander-Arnold’s performances in the last week have shown up Southgate’s selection policy for the sham many long suspected it to be.

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The Liverpool right-back started in that position for the Three Lions’ two matches in Nations League B, a pair of 2-0 victories over Republic of Ireland and Finland. In the first of those games, Alexander-Arnold created a pair of Opta-defined big chances, so should really have been rewarded with an assist.

Harry Kane put that right for him against the Finns, with the Reds’ defender delivering the pre-assist for another goal too. Alexander-Arnold created four further chances in that match and played some sublime line-breaking passes in both fixtures. He was rewarded by being voted as player of the match for each game.

Southgate never seemed to trust Alexander-Arnold in his Liverpool position. He appeared to buy in to the narrative largely created by ex- Manchester United players in the media, namely that Alexander-Arnold can’t defend. Jurgen Klopp often refuted such accusations but mud sticks, unfortunately.

The Three Lions’ previous manager started the 25-year-old in midfield in the recent European Championship , bombing him out when England didn’t play very well. It shouldn’t be newsworthy that interim manager Lee Carsley selected Premier League and Champions League winning right-back Alexander-Arnold at right-back recently, but this is the position to which Southgate helped drive the narrative.

Per FBRef , the Liverpool man had made 22 starts for England prior to this international break. If you look through them to find games in which he began at right-back, you see Australia, San Marino, Austria, Denmark, Kosovo (twice), Montenegro, Switzerland and United States. Nine starts in the position in which Alexander-Arnold has a strong case to be the best proponent in the world, and none of them against elite footballing nations.

Ireland and Finland don’t fall into that category either, in fairness. But with his two player of the match awards, Alexander-Arnold displayed what most right-minded people thought for a long time during the Southgate era: he should be England’s first choice right-back.