England have to defensively solid, says Trent Alexander-Arnold
Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold feels that England national team needs to improve defensively if they are to stand a chance of winning any silverware in the upcoming International competitions. England could qualify for Euro 2020 with a win against Czech Republic on Friday in Prague.
England have been in terrific shape and form as they have won all the four qualifiers until now and have conceded 4 goals in the process. Gareth Southgate's young men have transformed into one of the most deadly teams and are regarded as real contenders for Euro 2020 by the pundits. But the problem is that they conceded three out of those four goals against a fearless Kosovo side. The lowly ranked side gave Jordan Henderson and company a big problem taking full advantage of any mistakes that they made, pouncing and scoring goals.
The emergence of players like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jadon Sancho has improved the team quality, has added much-needed pace to the team and brought about a defensive change. However, despite that, Southgate and company have struggled defensively and Alexander-Arnold went on to admit that England stands a good chance of winning the Euros but they need to be defensively solid.
"We have to concede fewer goals. We know where to improve and where to work on. If we want to be regarded as one of the best teams in Europe and go far in the Euros, and try and win the competition, our goals conceded must be fewer," said the Liverpool full-back to BBC
The recently turned 21-year-old has become one of Gareth Southgate’s top picks over the last few months, giving Kyle Walker a run for his money. The Liverpool star also went on to speak about how Kosovo was an underrated team and tested Jordan Pickford time after time throughout the game. In their 2020 Euro qualifier against Kosovo, England’s clean sheet lasted barely 34 seconds as Kosovo, 120th in the FIFA rankings, took the lead due after an error from Michael Keane.
"Kosovo, really, were an underrated side and we had massive respect for them before the game and we knew they had threats. Luckily for us we were able to outscore them but we were not happy with the goals we conceded and we need to work on it," concluded Alexander-Arnold.
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