Trent Alexander-Arnold fix among five ways for Lee Carsley to endear himself to England fans

Lee Carsley’s appointment as interim England boss is well timed if no reason other than it provides reason to watch the otherwise uninspiring and superfluous Nations League fixtures against the Republic of Ireland and Finland.

He arrives with an excellent reputation on the back of his work with the Under 21s and has made some interesting selection calls in his first senior squad. While we would be hard pushed to say we’re excited, we’re at least intrigued and wonder what Carsley might do to endear himself to the England fans in his first two games.

Debuts

It makes absolute sense for Carsley to work with players he knows, and while the sceptics might suggest the uncapped players he’s called up would have been selected by anyone in his position, only perhaps Morgan Gibbs-White was anywhere near the Euro 2024 squad and even he was a rank outsider.

Tino Livramento has benefited from Kieran Trippier’s international retirement but it took some guts to snub Kyle Walker in his favour. Noni Madueke ensured his place with a hat-trick for Chelsea against Wolves but has still only started 20 Premier League games. And the boldest inclusion of all, Angel Gomes, has been excellent for Lille (so we hear) but has been nowhere near the thoughts of seemingly anyone but Carsley since he left Manchester United four years ago.

It’s all very well putting them in the squad, but we need to see them in action and preferably not in brief cameos at the end of games.

We want to see just how good Gibbs-White can be when – with all due respect to Nottingham Forest – playing with teammates of a higher standard. We want to see whether Livramento can be the next right-back to surpass Trent Alexander-Arnold in the England pecking order. We want to see if Madueke can be a suitable like-for-like backup for Bukayo Saka. We just want to see Gomes.

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The Liverpool Trent

He was always going to be asked because everyone is obsessed: Where will Alexander-Arnold play?

Obsessed for good reason, to be fair, because there is no greater passer of a football in England. But the answer to the question, which probably should have been made plain through six seasons of unrivalled excellence in that position under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, was decided at Euro 2024 after two distinctly average displays in central midfield: Trent Alexander-Arnold is a right-back.

The problem under Southgate was that he wasn’t a Southgate right-back. i.e. he’s not a boring sod. Thankfully, Carsley at least recognises that the best way to get the Liverpool Trent in an England shirt is to allow Trent to be the Liverpool Trent.

“For me, and this camp especially, he will be a right-back, playing in defence,” Carsley said when asked The Question. “Trent, especially modern-day full-backs, have all-round attributes that almost turn them into midfielders, very comfortable receiving the ball, great range of passing, as has Rico (Lewis) and Kyle Walker-Peters who I watched at Southampton the other day. At some point we will see him (Alexander-Arnold) come into midfield but I see him as a right-back.”

Perfect.

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Proper wingers

We lost count of the number of pundits clamouring for the inclusion of Anthony Gordon this summer as armchair managers threw their heads back in frustration at the 427th instance of Phil Foden getting the ball on the left and dribbling straight at Jude Bellingham in midfield.

Carsley has said Harry Kane will remain as captain, irritating a significant portion of the fanbase who will currently be sharpening knives in the hopes of another laboured display to illustrate He’s The Problem. But he’s hopefully sorted his back, isn’t quite so knackered and will continue scoring goals until the end of time, at which point the problem will actually, definitely arrive.

But with Kane ensconced, England do need some speed somewhere, and while we get that it’s very hard to leave any of Foden, Bellingham or Cole Palmer out when they’re fit – and it’s only going to get harder – England can’t keep putting square pegs in round holes.

Fortunately, Carsley has no such issues this week as none of Foden, Bellingham or Palmer are available, so it’s an excellent opportunity to see just what effect high and wide wingers have on the balance of the team.

If it’s broke, fix it quick

At Euro 2024, before the final when Ollie Watkins was brought on for Harry Kane on the hour mark, the earliest attacking substitution Southgate made that wasn’t enforced by injury came in the 69th minute.

Losing 1-0 to Slovakia in the last 16, he had made one substitution before the 84th minute. 1-0 down to Switzerland in the quarters, it took him until the 78th minute to make any changes at all. Drawing 1-1 with the Netherlands in the semi-final, the first attacking change came in the 80th.

No one knew what he was waiting for and while he may claim he made substitutions at the perfect time as England came through those games, we would suggest they may not have been quite so nervy and hard to watch had he fixed the things that were clearly broken earlier. It was unbelievably frustrating.

It won’t take much at all for Carsley to be a more proactive manager than Southgate, and while it may not be easy for an inexperienced coach to hook global stars when they’re not performing, it’s an easy way to endear yourself to the fans.

Eberechi Eze

Quite simple really: play Eberechi Eze. Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish was as “astounded” as the rest of us that he wasn’t fielding calls from clubs right, left and centre over his transfer this summer. “The guy’s just an outstanding footballer, an outstanding person,” Parish said. Amen.

Southgate used him more in the Euros than most of the other back-ups, not that that’s saying much, but with the aforementioned No.10s out of the squad, we all want two starts for a guy with a unique ability to pick the ball up from deep and make opposition players look daft with the ease through which he glides past them. We watch football for such footballers.