Wayne Rooney's Take on Trent Alexander-Arnold's Omission from England Squad
Wayne Rooney leans back into his chair and shakes his head. Even now, the omission doesn’t make sense to him.
“Mind-boggling,” he calls it. And he means it.
The former England captain cannot fathom how Trent Alexander-Arnold has slipped so far down Thomas Tuchel’s pecking order that he cannot even get into a 35-man squad, never mind the starting XI, with a World Cup looming in Canada, Mexico and the USA.
This is a player who has fought his way back from a thigh injury, nailed down a regular spot at Real Madrid since January, and yet watched from afar as England faced Uruguay and Japan in March. No Reece James, injured. No Trent either.
Instead, Arsenal’s Ben White started both games and even opened the scoring in the 1-1 draw with Uruguay.
Rooney made sure to stress the respect. “No disrespect to Ben White – I think he's a fantastic player – but for him to be in the squad and playing ahead of Trent is mind-boggling,” he said on the Wayne Rooney Podcast.
The numbers back up the sense of disbelief. Alexander-Arnold hasn’t kicked a ball for his country since coming off the bench in a World Cup qualifier against Andorra in June last year. Four consecutive England squads have passed without his name. Four.
In his place, Tuchel has turned to Newcastle’s Tino Livramento, Tottenham’s Djed Spence and Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa, all named ahead of Alexander-Arnold in the latest 35-man group for England’s final home friendlies before the World Cup. The message is clear: Trent is no longer a certainty. He’s not even a probable.
Yet not everyone is ready to accept that.
Phil Jagielka, Rooney’s old Everton team-mate and a defender who knows the demands of tournament football, believes Alexander-Arnold still has to be on that plane.
“I think he probably still makes it,” Jagielka said. “You need your best players. If [Alexander-Arnold] proves he can play half as well as he played for most of his time at Liverpool, he's definitely worth taking on the plane. If Reece James is fit, you put him in [at right-back].”
That last line is telling. Even those arguing for Trent see James as the starter.
Rooney is no different. He would also go with the Chelsea man at right-back this summer, even as he labels the 26-year-old “unreliable” in that role.
“Reece James isn't the most defensive,” Rooney said. “In terms of the lads who are there, you wouldn't say they're the best defensively anyway, [any] of them.”
It’s a blunt assessment of England’s options on the right. Talent everywhere, perfection nowhere. Tuchel must decide which flaw he can live with.
If the right side is a puzzle, the left is a battleground.
Manchester City’s Nico O'Reilly and Newcastle’s Lewis Hall have emerged as the frontrunners for the starting left-back berth in Tuchel’s XI. Both are young, both are fearless, both are reshaping their positions in very different teams.
O'Reilly’s season under Pep Guardiola has been remarkable. Fifty appearances in all competitions, nine goals, six assists. He drifts into midfield, drives at defenders, creates chaos in the final third. He looks like a playmaker disguised as a full-back.
Hall, by contrast, has been one of the few bright sparks in a frustrating Newcastle campaign. Forty-four games, a run to the last 16 of the Champions League, and a consistency that has impressed even as Eddie Howe’s side have stumbled.
Jagielka admires O’Reilly’s flair but doesn’t ignore the other side of the ball.
“I really, really enjoy watching O'Reilly, but he gets caught out of defence,” he said. “He doesn't get asked to play left-back when he's at Manchester City. I'd go O'Reilly at this moment in time, but there's literally nothing between him and Lewis.”
That is the dilemma. Do you trust the attacking thrust of a converted midfielder, or the more traditional balance of a natural full-back? Tuchel’s choice at left-back will say a lot about how he intends this England team to play.
Rooney, though, looks elsewhere entirely.
While the debate rages around O’Reilly and Hall, he reaches back to a familiar name: Luke Shaw. The Manchester United defender, England’s starting left-back at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, is Rooney’s pick.
His reasoning cuts straight to the heart of the issue.
“We don't need our full-backs to be the most attacking; we need them to defend,” Rooney said. “Keep the balance and let the attacking player win you the games. Luke Shaw can't [attack] as much now, but what he can do is defend.”
It’s a vision of England built on structure, not spectacle. A back line that holds its shape and lets the stars further forward decide tournaments.
Tuchel now stands between two competing ideas of what this England side should be: the bold, expansive version powered by full-backs who play like wingers, or the more controlled model Rooney champions, with Shaw and James offering solidity and Trent fighting just to get back into the conversation.
The World Cup is closing in. The squads are almost set. Somewhere in Madrid, Trent Alexander-Arnold will be wondering which version of England Thomas Tuchel truly believes in – and whether there’s still room for him in it.
