Tuchel Reflects on Alexander-Arnold's England Omission

Thomas Tuchel has openly admitted that leaving Trent Alexander-Arnold out of recent England squads – a run that cost the defender a place at the World Cup – may not have been entirely just.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the England manager laid bare the thinking that kept the Real Madrid full-back on the outside looking in for almost a year.

“Was it always fair? Maybe not from my side,” Tuchel said, reflecting on a spell in which Alexander-Arnold managed just 26 minutes for England, a substitute outing against Andorra, since Tuchel took charge in October 2024. “But if you remember, the next camp was September.”

England hit a groove. Tuchel rode it. Alexander-Arnold paid the price.

Momentum over reputation

Tuchel made clear he had chosen continuity over reputation once England found their stride in those early camps. The team, as he put it, were “suddenly flying”, and that surge locked the Liverpool academy graduate out of the squad.

“We were suddenly flying and we stuck to the same squad in October and that was it for him,” Tuchel said. “There was never a chance for him to come back whether that was [fair] or not. I just trusted the guys who were in camp.”

That trust, he insisted, was built on evidence and rhythm rather than any personal slight. The message was blunt: if the group is winning, it is brutally hard to break back in.

For Alexander-Arnold, the route back has come not through sentiment but through Madrid.

Under Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid this season, the 25-year-old has started three matches, finally stringing together the kind of club performances Tuchel felt he could no longer ignore. His form in Spain has kicked the door back open and earned him a recall for the latest international window.

No comfort zone in camp

Tuchel, though, was careful not to dress the recall up as a reward or a homecoming. For him, an England call-up is a demanding job, not a soft landing.

“You don’t come to relax. You don’t come to take a break. You come to perform and it’s difficult to perform for England and the guys who perform now have our trust,” he said.

“And the guys who come new into camp, we demand the highest of them. It includes Trent but it’s not exclusively for him. It’s for everyone who comes to our camps.”

The standard is clear. Past glories count for little. Even for a Champions League winner now starting for Real Madrid.

Spain, Czechia – and a chance to reset

Alexander-Arnold’s task is straightforward in theory, far tougher in reality: turn club form into international authority, quickly.

England face world champions Spain on Saturday in the UEFA Nations League, a fixture that offers no hiding place for a returning defender. After that comes a trip to Czechia, another test of concentration and consistency.

For Alexander-Arnold, the training pitch this week becomes his real audition. Win Tuchel’s trust there, carry Madrid’s sharpness into an England shirt, and the story shifts from “maybe not fair” to firmly first-choice.

Fail, and that World Cup omission might not be the last brutal call he has to live with.