Roy Keane claimed that Trent Alexander-Arnold played ‘one good ball in an hour’ during England’s win over Serbia.
England prevailed with a 1-0 victory in their opening Euro 2024 fixture but there was much debate over Alexander-Arnold’s performance.
As anticipated, Gareth Southgate elected to deploy the 25-year-old in midfield even though he usually features as a right-back for Liverpool at club level.
Alexander-Arnold was on the pitch for 69 minutes before he was replaced by Conor Gallagher.
Keane claimed that it will take Alexander-Arnold time to get used to playing in midfield at international level.
Speaking on ITV, Keane said: ‘I thought Trent did alright. It was a pretty average England performance. He made a couple of mistakes which he got away with. That’s all part of learning your trade.
‘It took me 25 international games to get settled in the midfield. He’s got that range of passing, that’s one good ball in an hour. There will be tougher games ahead.’
Meanwhile, Ian Wright claimed that Alexander-Arnold was too far forwards in midfield at times.
Wright: ‘There were times he was way forward. I thought Trent was too far forwards.’
Gary Neville stated that Alexander-Arnold struggled at times and added that midfielders wouldn’t be happy to see him starting ahead of them.
Neville said: ‘If you’re good enough to play in midfield all the time you would play in midfield. You saw Trent struggle a couple of times was when it was tight. If you’re a midfielder and you see a right-back getting ahead of you… you wouldn’t be happy.’
It will be intriguing to see whether Southgate will persist with Alexander-Arnold in midfield in England’s next game against Denmark on Thursday.