It was the question nobody was asking: could Trent Alexander-Arnold do it against 10 game but limited Czechs on a mild Tuesday night in Prague? The answer was a resounding yes. Alexander-Arnold played well after starting for the first time under Thomas Tuchel, demonstrating his value to England by helping them work out the dreaded low block with a trademark assist for Anthony Gordon to settle the nerves in a game coloured by Czechia losing Pavel Sulc to a debatable red card midway through the first half.
The cross for Gordon to make it 1-0 early in the second half was a classic Trent moment. He was smart after a broken passage of play, adjusting quickly when a loose Czechia pass reached him on the right. The situation did not call for Alexander-Arnold to wait for support or check back and look inside for a pass.
England needed decisiveness against a defence bent out of shape after losing possession and Alexander-Arnold provided it, taking the opposition out of the equation by getting the ball out of his feet and displaying his unrivalled vision by crossing for Gordon to put England on the way to their first win in Nations League Group A3. It is unlikely, after all, that Jarell Quansah would have had the imagination to pick out Gordon. Quansah is a good, quick defender but his crosses did not hit the mark when he started at right-back during England’s defeat by Spain on Saturday.
Alexander-Arnold, an unused substitute against the world champions, even when England were chasing an equaliser and could have done with better service from the flanks, does not tend to miss the target with his crosses. Yet the Real Madrid defender has not had many opportunities to express himself in an England shirt. Alexander-Arnold turns 28 next week and made his international debut eight years ago but this was only his 35th cap.
He has endured a lot of false dawns at this level. Injury ruled Alexander-Arnold out at Euro 2020 and successive managers have found it hard to find a place for him. Sir Gareth Southgate could never unlock Alexander-Arnold’s talent.
He left him out at times. Southgate was reluctant to use him at right-back and an experiment as a midfielder at Euro 2024 was swiftly aborted. The general consensus is that Alexander-Arnold cannot defend.
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