Gareth Southgate responds to Wayne Rooney criticism over ‘special’ Trent Alexander-Arnold role

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Gareth Southgate says playing Trent Alexander-Arnold in central midfield is an “opportunity worth grasping” that could be “incredibly special”.

The England boss also detailed how he is still to decide on Luke Shaw’s fitness for Sunday’s Euro 2024 opener against Serbia.

Southgate came close to confirming Alexander-Arnold will start in midfield by enthusing about his ability there, in response to questions about Wayne Rooney’s criticism that he wouldn’t give the Liverpool star a central role.

“Everybody’s more than entitled to opinions, so that’s our world, we have to accept that,” Southgate said. “Then we have to go and show what we can do. I’m really happy. I spoke to Trent about playing in this role over a year ago. It’s something he’s been really keen to do.

“He’s been really receptive to feedback and every bit of information. We know he can be a really special player. Equally, we know it’s not something he’s been doing for the last five years. There is an element of the unknown to it. But I think it’s an opportunity that’s worth grasping because he could be something incredibly special.”

It is expected that Alexander-Arnold will line up alongside Declan Rice in the centre, behind an attack of Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden and Bukayo Saka, with Harry Kane in front.

The biggest question then concerns the defence, and whether Shaw can return to ensure there is at least one left-footed player in the backline. Southgate hinted it might be too soon as he spoke about the Manchester United defender’s participation in training.

“He wasn’t so much non-contact, it was more to monitor the physical load and the types of things he was doing in that particular session. Contact hasn’t been a problem from the off with the injury he had. He has been into full training but not into every session: that is the decision we have to make, whether he is at a level where he could have an influence in the game from the bench.”

Southgate did speak again about how England have to adapt to a lot of personnel and fitness issues, when asked about starting the tournament well. Germany set an obvious benchmark with their thrilling 5-1 victory over Scotland in the opening game.

“Well, I think the first thing is we are very happy with the way we have prepared. You can only control the things that are within your control and there are elements that we’ve inherited in terms of physical conditioning and availability. But we always focus on, ‘OK, this is the hand of cards we have got, what’s the best way to play them?’ And, of course, everybody would love to have the start to a tournament like Germany did. Every coach in the competition will be dreaming of a few early goals and able to change your players and rest them.

“But not every game for Germany is going to be like that and not every team that has won tournaments has started in that fashion. So, for us, it is about making sure we are adaptable, resilient to whatever issues are thrown up in the tournament because inevitably there will be.

“You never know when they are coming. You never know what they are going to be. But I think the key in tournaments is to make sure you are able to navigate all those things and that’s again something we have talked to the players about a lot. Yes, you’ve got to work tactically. Yes, you’ve got to work physically. But psychologically, tournaments challenge everything and challenge the whole group, the whole staff. So, we feel well prepared in that aspect.”

As regards Serbia, Southgate described them as “very dangerous” opponents.

“They’ve scored a lot of goals in qualifying,” Southgate said. “They have good individual players, some of whom obviously we know from being in the Premier League. The system they play can cause problems.

“They are positive in the way that they go about that. And we know that their commitment and pride is a huge strength to them as a team, so we’ve made the players very aware of all of those factors in training this week.”