When Jamie Carragher discovered that England's quarterfinal matchup against Switzerland would see Kieran Trippier starting at right wing back, he conveyed his surprise to Gareth Southgate.
Southgate, the manager of England, decided to go from a 4-2-3-1 system to a 3-4-3 one in front of the Dusseldorf match. In England's first four tournament games, Kyle Walker started at right back, but when the team played with three defenders at the back, Southgate liked to utilize the Manchester City skipper as a central defender.
As a result, Southgate was forced to choose between Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold and Newcastle United's Trippier, who had started the summer at left back. Throughout his playing career, Carragher played 737 times for Liverpool and earned 38 senior international appearances for England. He is sure that Alexander-Arnold ought to have been chosen.
While talking to SkySports, the former Liverpool defender said that, “Kieran Trippier has done a decent job at left back. He's picked him over Trent Alexander-Arnold, which I just cannot fathom at all. I mean, that's not the Liverpool fan in me.”
“I just can't get my head around” : Jamie Carragher
While right back is Alexander-Arnold's most frequent position at the club level, he began England's opening two Euros group matches in center midfield. Carragher stated that although he supported Southgate's choice to select Walker over Alexander-Arnold, the 25-year-old was still far better than Trippier.
Jamie Carragher added, “For a long time, I've always felt it was right that Kyle Walker played right back for England,' Carragher explained. 'I thought it was right that Gareth experimented with Trent in midfield because he's got, obviously, world-class ability on the ball. It didn't quite work and he had to be taken out of the team.”
He concluded by saying that, “But the reason that you'd play Trippier over Trent, I just can't get my head around. The only reason would be that Kieran has played maybe a few more games, maybe he trusts him. But when you say defensively, the whole point of playing three at the back is to release your wing backs. And you've got Kyle Walker behind you, he's the quickest player in the squad to mop up anything if you get caught out defensively.”