Should Trent Alexander-Arnold Be Included In England’s World Cup Squad? – Scout Report

Is there a more polarising figure in football at the moment than Trent Alexander-Arnold?

The 23-year-old Liverpool and England right-back is widely admired for his ability in the attacking phases and there are few if any players out there who have a more effective passing range than the young Englishman.

For all that he gets a lot of praise for his playmaking abilities, however, there are always people who are ready to knock the 23-year-old for his defensive ability and instincts.

So far this season it would be fair to say that things have not gone to plan for Liverpool and with the team struggling for results, it is only natural that people start to look for the reasons behind the poor form.

The truth is, there is no one reason behind Liverpools slow start and instead there have been numerous contributing factors.

While the defence, Alexander-Arnold included, have looked slow and porous, they have not been helped by the lack of pressure on the ball from the forwards, something that was for so long an expected aspect of Liverpools game, and the issues that the club have suffered in the midfield where the previously evergreen James Milner, in particular, has now begun showing signs of his age.

All of these factors have fed into what has been an uncharacteristic set of performances from Jurgen Klopps team.

As always in these situations, the watching public likes to look to identify a cause or a scapegoat and it is easy for the blame to effectively land on the shoulders of Alexander-Arnold given the fact that his defensive performances are never at a very high standard.

All of this is also feeding into the ongoing narrative around the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

England will be going into the tournament as one of the favourites but one of the positions in which they have the most depth available is right-back.

There is a genuine question at the moment surrounding whether or not Gareth Southgate should include Alexander-Arnold as part of the squad for Qatar and that is despite the obvious positives that you get from the young right-back in the attacking phases of the game.

The likes of Kyle Walker and Reece James, amongst others, are still in contention for the position as well and as things stand it feels as though Southgate has a huge decision to make.

Although, you could argue that both James and Walker offer versatility in terms of their positioning, is there really space in the squad for three players who are primarily right-backs?

As is so often the case, we can turn to data in order to answer the key question of this scout report; should the England coach Gareth Southgate take Trent Alexander-Arnold to Qatar as part of the squad? This tactical analysis piece looks to find out.

It will be an analysis of Alexander-Arnolds overall game, seeing if the Englishman fits into the Three Lions tactics.

Trent Alexander-Arnold Data Profile

At the moment, we are in that difficult period of the season from a data perspective in that the sample size (in terms of minutes played) is growing to the point that it is usable but is still too low to use in isolation.

As such we have taken Alexander-Arnolds data from the 2021/22 Premier League season and the 2022/23 Premier League season so far.

We should pause here to say that