Gareth Southgate has been lauded for his treatment of Trent Alexander-Arnold after the Liverpool star scored the decisive penalty in the shootout for England on Saturday to secure quarter-final victory over Switzerland.
after Breel Embolo gave the Swiss the lead, and the Arsenal winger was one of five successful penalty takers for England as Jordan Pickford saved Manuel Akanji s effort.
Alexander-Arnold took the fifth and confidently smashed his spot-kick into the top corner having only replaced Phil Foden in the second half of extra time.
It s been difficult tournament for Alexander-Arnold after he started the opening two games in midfield before Southgate admitted to that failed experiment.
Many expected the Liverpool man to start against Switzerland as Southgate switched to five at the back but he was left out again.
Kudos to Southgate
Had Alexander-Arnold missed Southgate would undoubtedly have been criticised for introducing him so late, but he didn t and that s led Didi Hamann to praise the England boss.
Most of (our criticism of Gareth Southgate) was justified, but at the same time I ve got to say he s played him (Alexander-Arnold) at the start of the tournament, he took him off then he started with Gallagher, he said while working as a pundit for RTE.
Now to bring him on in the quarter finals when he hasn t played any part in the last one or two games, to bring him on with three minutes to go, and obviously he told him when he did go on you re gonna take the last penalty so that means he s taken him out, but at the same time he still trusts him to take that last penalty.
You need a gut feeling as a manager and obviously he had the feeling that Trent is the man to do that because it wasn t an easy situation for him started the tournament as a central midfielder, come off, hardly played, today trippier plays ahead of him at wingback which is a role tailormade for him so he probably thought at the start of the game today my tournament is finished . So credit to Southgate and to Alexander-Arnold.
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