Jurgen Klopp went “too far” by criticising Gareth Southgate’s decision to leave Trent Alexander-Arnold out of the last England squad, according to Tony Cascarino.
Liverpool boss Klopp said he didn’t understand why Southgate had left the right-back out of the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino, Poland and Albania, adding that even Lionel Messi has been below-par at times.
“If Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the squad of England then England must have an extremely good squad, let me say it like this,” said Klopp.
“I have no problem if my players get some criticism. They can get it from me, they can get it from other people.
“I respect that Gareth makes his own decisions, of course, but I didn’t understand it anyway because Trent Alexander-Arnold was in the last two seasons at least, let me say the season before and the season before that, the stand out right-back in world football – that is the truth and at an unbelievable young age.”
(Image: Pool via REUTERS)
But former Chelsea and Republic of Ireland forward Cascarino says Alexander-Arnold’s omission was justified.
“He’s had games where he has not been as good offensively but let’s get it right, he’s probably the best attacking wing-back England have got by a long way,” he told talkSPORT.
“But he’s not had a good season defensively and that means teams have tried to exploit Trent – Raheem Sterling did it for Man City, Marcus Rashford did it for Man United, I’ve seen Grealish do it when Villa won 7-2, trying to exploit the space in behind him.
“I think that’s the reason and I think Klopp went a bit too far.
“What I would say is it’s just a bit unfortunately he’s been left out, and no more than that. Managers have choices to make.
“Trent is a fabulous talent and he still has a part to play for England, I just think you cannot say he has had the season he had the year before, but quite a long way.”
