Jamie Redknapp did not leave much room for nuance. Speaking to football365.com, he said Thomas Tuchel’s decision not to call up Trent Alexander-Arnold felt like “a big mistake”, and then pushed it further by calling it “a monumental mistake” as England’s right-back options thinned out again.

The timing has made the criticism sharper. Reece James has been sidelined with a hamstring injury on six separate occasions in the last three years, and he was expected to miss at least two weeks of action, which rules him out of England’s early knockout clashes. Jarell Quansah then played 63 minutes at right-back against Panama before going off with an apparent ankle injury.

Redknapp’s case against the omission

Redknapp’s argument was not subtle. He said, “Against teams who are going to sit back, you need to get width,” and added that leaving Alexander-Arnold out “just tells you that he’s a big character.” He also suggested the only explanation was that Tuchel feared he might be divisive, though that part remains Redknapp’s view rather than a verified reason from the camp itself.

There is a football case behind the noise. Alexander-Arnold has 34 England caps and has played only 26 minutes under Tuchel, which helps explain why the manager may have been reluctant to lean on him. But that caution looks harder to defend now that the squad is short of natural cover and scrambling for width from elsewhere.

England’s right-back shortage

The practical problem is easy to see. England beat Panama 2-0, but the match also exposed how thin the right-back coverage has become once Quansah went off injured. Tuchel had already replaced Valentino Livramento before the tournament, so the pool of options was never deep.

England still have breathing room in the group, with 7 points from 3 matches and top spot in Group L. Their next scheduled World Cup fixture is against Congo DR on 2026-07-01. The issue now is whether that next match arrives with enough fit full-backs to avoid even more improvisation.

Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →