5 months ago
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Photo by Eddie Keogh - The FA/The FA via Getty Images
A role in the double-pivot alongside Declan Rice appears likely for the Liverpool playmaker in an unusually attacking England side.
Following his standout performance for England in their 3-0 warm-up victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday, national team manager Gareth Southgate is leaning towards deploying Liverpool playmaker Trent Alexander-Arnold in the six at Euro 2024.
It’s a role that would see the fullback play alongside Declan Rice in a double-pivot three-man midfield, with Jude Bellingham ahead of them in the ten and potentially a front line of Phil Foden, Harry Kane, and Bukayo Saka—with the likes of Jarrod Bowen and Jack Grealish available off the bench.
It’s the kind of talented, attacking lineup few might have dreamt of England having the ability to play in the past. Now the only question perhaps is if Southgate can find enough of an adventurous spirit to embrace England’s enviable depth at the top end of the pitch.
“Firstly he is enjoying playing in an England shirt,” Southgate said of Alexander-Arnold’s man of the match performance on Monday. “He has had a difficult international career in that because of the depth [at right back], we haven’t always been able to give him the football his talent deserves.
“But we have always been trying to find ways to do that and I think he knows that, so it was lovely to see him score, to have that moment, and to play with that confidence for England. We were all very pleased—it is a role that he is discovering and he is hungry to learn.”
England have one more warm-up ahead of the Euros, facing Iscland on Friday, June 7th, before their tournament kicks off against Serbia on the 16th. Denmark and Slovenia then follow and round out their opposition in Group C, a group that the Three Lions will be heavily favoured to win.
“I talked to him about playing [in the six in a double-pivot] a year or so ago,” the England manager added. “We are going to have different challenges in this tournament and we are going to have to have different ways of solving problems that teams pose us.”
