Fair Enough! Thomas Tuchel on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cryptic IG post

Thomas Tuchel insists he understand the reasoning behind Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cryptic Instagram post following his snub for England’s upcoming friendlies.

Alexander-Arnold was left out of England’s 35-man-squad for their last batch of friendlies ahead of the World Cup despite his improved form with Real Madrid.

The former Liverpool defender has featured just once for Thomas Tuchel — a substitute appearance against Andorra in June last year — and was omitted from the recent England camp despite Reece James and Kieran Trippier being out injured.

Following Madrid’s derby win over Atlético Madrid over the wekeend, Alexander-Arnold made a post on Instagram captioned “Madrid. Y nada mas” (Madrid, nothing else).

Trent Alexander-Arnold right-back of Real Madrid and England. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

When this was put to Tuchel in an interview with ITV, he said: “Well, fair enough, fair enough. I think it’s a very hard decision that we took. No doubt about his talent, no doubt about his career and what he can give to teams.

“We created a slightly different game model when he was not in camp in September, October, November. It was a game model built on intensity, built on positivity, built even in the profile of the right full back on overlaps on underlaps, very intense.

“So it was a slightly different profile of players who were with us in camp and who performed so well. We just stick to these guys that is on his back and maybe he was with us in June and he should have maybe deserved a second chance.

“It is a very hard decision. I’m aware of it, but yeah, he took it on his chin. He will keep on going. I will make sure that I see some matches from Real Madrid, maybe [in the] Champions League to get my last impressions.”

“He’s on the long list and everyone is still in the mix, but at the moment, some other guys are just ahead of him.”

England will host Uruguay at Wembley Stadium on Friday before facing Japan on Tuesday at the same venue.