Rio Ferdinand has insisted that Chelsea’s Reece James is better than Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold right now.
Speaking on his Vibe With Five podcast, Ferdinand was asked who he’d play in England’s right wing-back role at the upcoming World Cup. The former Manchester United man said that on current form, the Chelsea player is better.
This is a difficult one. We are going where we are right now. Reece James is ahead of Trent right now,” he said. “If I’m a winger I look at who I don’t want to play against more out of the two of them and it would be Reece. I think physically he can match people defensively and going forward is ridiculous. Trent’s passing I would say arguably is better over varied distances but I think Reece will score more goals. He’s in there [the penalty area] so much.
“You could play Trent there as well and he’d run it and both of them can come in here [central areas]. That’s the one thing, he plays this position week in and week out. Trent plays more from the right-back area coming onto things.”
Trent left out in the cold for England
It seems that, as of last night, Gareth Southgate is in agreement with Ferdinand. For Friday night’s clash with Italy, the England boss went with James on the right of a back five.
The other outstanding candidate for that role, Kyle Walker, started as one of the three centre-backs.
That left Alexander-Arnold with a watching brief for the full 90 minutes. A familiar scenario for Trent who just can’t seem to convince Southgate.
England duly lost 1-0 in a predictably uninspired display.
That now makes it five games without a win for the Three Lions. During those five games, Alexander-Arnold has played for just 62 minutes.
James on the hand has played 208 minutes, including two full games. One of those being the 4-0 embarrassment at home to Hungary, when he played as a left-back.
It seems that things aren’t quite working for Southgate and England. Despite frequent calls that other players are more suited to his system, perhaps it’s time he actually gave Alexander-Arnold a decent run in the team.
