Trent Alexander-Arnold revealed he has been working on his midfield role with England over the last year as he lauded Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham for their performances alongside him in the Euro 2024 win over Serbia.
Arguably Gareth Southgate's biggest decision before the Group C opener was who to deploy next to Rice in the centre of the pitch, with Alexander-Arnold given the nod over the likes of Conor Gallagher and Kobbie Mainoo.
England secured a 1-0 win courtesy of an early Bellingham header, with Alexander-Arnold’s performance splitting opinion as he was replaced by Gallagher with 20 minutes remaining in Gelsenkirchen.
A right-back at Liverpool, Southgate has been working on transforming Alexander-Arnold’s game on the international stage and the 25-year-old spoke after the win about the effort that has gone into the shift.
"I was prepared and not just through myself, but especially the manager and (assistant manager) Steve Holland have worked very hard over the past year for me to understand and know the role that I’m being asked to do," he told beIN Sports.
"Not only that, I’m playing with two of the, if not the two best midfielders in football right now, in Declan and Jude. So I’m in good company when I’m in there, they’ve helped me."
England 1-0 Serbia highlights
On his own display, Alexander-Arnold said his performance would be analysed ahead of the second group game against Denmark on Thursday.
He is likely to retain his place in a team that dropped off following a fast start against Serbia, something else he feels will be addressed ahead of the match in Frankfurt.
"I tried to contribute as much as I could for the team," he added.
"I was told, it was explained what my role would be, trying to execute it to the best of my ability and contribute to the win.
"So hopefully the manager and staff will obviously analyse the game back and see it, but the most important thing is to win and hopefully I contributed to that."
That was not a view shared by the RTÉ Panel, former Ireland international Kenny Cunningham feeling England have "five or six better options" at centre midfield than the full-back, who he called a "liability" at the "totally different" position.
"He's a liability to that English team and if he stays in that central midfield area any longer England have no chance of winning this competition."
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) June 17, 2024
Kenny Cunningham has slammed Gareth Southgate’s decision to start Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield.
📺 @rte2 and @rteplayer pic.twitter.com/4tDhmcPKqc
Alexander-Arnold added on his team's struggles: "I think you could see from, especially the first 10, 15, 20 minutes, the fluidity, the way that we were playing, the excitement and the chances that we were creating, it just showed a glimpse of what we can do.
"We need to analyse why we couldn't sustain that for the full 90 (minutes), but you have to take your hats off, we were playing a really difficult team."
UEFA are investigating allegations of discriminatory chanting by Serbia fans during the game in Gelsenkirchen on Sunday.
England players were reportedly targeted with racist abuse during the match, although it is understood that no complaints have been made from the England camp.
The Kosovan federation had earlier complained to UEFA about Serbian flags, chants and banners at the match which it claimed contained "political, chauvinistic and racist messages against Kosovo".
UEFA confirmed an ethics and disciplinary inspector would conduct an investigation into "alleged discriminatory behaviour" by Serbian fans, which is expected to take a number of weeks.
Serbia have also been formally charged on two counts, for their supporters displaying a banner that "transmitted a provocative message unfit for a sports event", and for throwing objects inside the stadium.
In November, Serbia were ordered to play their Euro 2024 qualifier against Bulgaria in a partially closed stadium after racist abuse marred their win over Montenegro.
