Thomas Tuchel’s decision to leave Trent Alexander-Arnold out of England’s World Cup squad is drawing sharper scrutiny after injuries cut the team’s right-back options down to one. Tuchel said squad harmony justified the omission, but the picture around it has only become harder to defend.
That is why Alexander-Arnold’s name is back in focus now. He has barely been used by Tuchel, with only 26 minutes for England under the German, and his last appearance came in June last year against Andorra. For a player with 78 caps, that is a stark fall, especially with England trying to manage a tournament squad while the search for balance continues.
John Terry pushed the issue further by accusing Tuchel of picking on Djed Spence during England’s four games at this summer’s World Cup. Terry said he was worried after seeing the manager go at Spence again during the match against DR Congo, and suggested Tuchel would not speak to Alexander-Arnold the same way. He also argued that may be part of the explanation for why Tuchel has preferred some younger or newer players, because they can be handled in a way senior figures perhaps would not accept.
Spence has still been used. He has won 10 caps and started two of England’s four games, even as Tuchel continued to criticise him from the touchline. That leaves a contradiction at the heart of the selection picture: Tuchel has talked about harmony, but the tournament has also exposed how narrow the right-back picture became once Reece James and Tino Livramento picked up injuries.
Alexander-Arnold’s omission looked cleaner when it was framed as a choice. It looks more exposed when the pool thins out. He moved from Liverpool to Real Madrid last summer, but the bigger issue for Tuchel is now practical rather than political: England’s right side has been reduced to one fit option, and that makes the absence of a 25-year-old with 78 caps harder to justify than it was a week ago.
The question now is not whether Tuchel likes the shape of the squad he picked. It is whether England can carry on with that shape if the injuries force him to rethink the one position he left with the least cover.
