Tuchel risks wasting match-winner in Trent
Thomas Tuchel’s treatment of Trent Alexander-Arnold borders on the negligent. It’s baffling, damaging, self-defeating. Ignoring one of the best passers of the ball in the modern game is not simply about one player, one position. It’s about the snubbing of a risk-taking, chance-making bold philosophy.
England have long had a history of mistrusting elegant passers. Glenn Hoddle always felt he would have won twice his 53 caps had he been French. Paul Scholes was wasted tucked in on the left too often. That was partly because of the excellence of Steven Gerrard, who could unleash a 50-yard pass, and Frank Lampard. David Beckham on the right could certainly deliver. But the general argument holds true: there is a suspicion of passers, those with finesse who caress the ball. Like Hoddle and Scholes. And now it feels sadly, dangerously, like Alexander-Arnold is going the same way.
He was absent injured for Tuchel’s first two games when Kyle Walker, then Reece James started at right-back. Curtis Jones, a midfielder, started ahead of Alexander-Arnold against Andorra on Saturday. Tuchel did grant Alexander-Arnold the last quarter of the game. Walker, who will be 36 at the World Cup, started ahead of him in the dispiriting – and deserved – defeat to Senegal. Walker endured a particularly difficult evening.
He’s showing his age, and Tuchel hadn’t spotted it. Until the Senegalese started running at and past him. That was when Tuchel saw “the lack of rhythm in misjudgements, duels and anticipation” in a defender who has lost his pace and played so little for AC Milan towards the end of the season. Tuchel defended his decision to start Walker by saying that “he pushes the standard and the level…he deserved to play”. Not on recent evidence. Not on this evidence. And he played the full 90 minutes.