‘I can’t believe how bad he is defensively’: Roy Keane warns England man will be ‘found out’
Roy Keane believes that England are at risk of getting ‘found out’ for as long as they keep Trent Alexander-Arnold in the side – particularly when they come up against better teams than Finland.
The Liverpool full-back showed both the good and bad sides of his game in Helsinki after being selected at left-back by interim boss Lee Carsley. Alexander-Arnold played the penultimate pass en route to Jack Grealish’s first-half opener, finding Angel Gomes just outside the box to apply a wonderful outside-of-the-boot pass to send the Manchester City man clean through.
Alexander-Arnold then curled a brilliant free kick into the top corner to double England’s lead on 74 minutes, despite Lukas Hradecky getting a slight fingertip to it.
But the 26 year old was caught out defensively a couple of times during a threatening Finland spell either side of the break, most notably as Fredrik Jensen got the better of Alexander-Arnold on 38 minutes before rushing a shot well off target.
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Speaking on ITV after the game, Ian Wright said: “Lee Carsley wants as many creative players in the deep end of his football team to create, and Trent is one of those that he believes in.
“He played him on the left and I can’t see it being something that’ll happen too frequently, but at the same time it was his pass that led to Angel Gomes doing his bit of quality, we see his bit of quality there as well [with the free kick]. There’s some great passing in the game as well.”
Keane cannot look past Alexander-Arnold’s flaws, though, adding: “You give time to Trent, his decision making, his quality passing, he’s fantastic.
“But honestly, I can’t believe how bad he is defensively, and against better teams of course he’ll be found out.”
Alexander-Arnold rarely got a look-in in his preferred right-back role under Gareth Southgate, but had started all of Carsley’s previous three games in charge in that role before being shifted across to the left on this occasion as Kyle Walker was restored to the side.
