England: Thomas Tuchel echoes Arne Slot's challenge to Trent Alexander-Arnold to replicate Liverpool impact | OneFootball

Out-going Liverpool star has been challenged to show he is a good defender

Thomas Tuchel has echoed the words of Arne Slot in encouraging Trent Alexander-Arnold to place greater focus on defending than he currently does.

Those quotes came less than an hour before he was announced in Tuchel’s 26-man squad for England’s upcoming games next month against Andorra and Senegal.

The 26-year-old has endured a tough few weeks since it emerged that he will be leaving his boyhood club this summer to join Real Madrid, with his contract up in June, including being booed by Liverpool fans upset with his decision to depart.

Speaking in his press conference ahead of champions Liverpool’s last match of the Premier League season, at home to Crystal Palace on Sunday, Slot said: “Maybe he said it himself. He’s going to leave either way, so why not tell you? Maybe it’s a first gift I can give to [incoming Real manager] Xabi Alonso.

“I wasn’t completely happy with every single minute how he was on the training ground,” Slot said, referring to pre-season last summer.

“In my opinion in certain moments he could do a bit more, to say it mildly, and that’s what we talked about.

“Combined with that I said to him: ‘You are a much better defender than everybody tells you, unfortunately you don’t show it all the time, that’s why people sometimes say you are not’.

“If he is just at it and focused and concentrated, there are not many players that can go around him, because he’s fast, he’s agile, he has great mentality.

“But it’s about showing that every single game, because in this world we are judged not only on the 34 games we do well, we are mainly judged on the four games we don’t do so well. These things we spoke about in pre-season.”

Arne Slot has delivered his verdict on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defending

AFP via Getty Images

Those comments were put to Tuchel, who first discussed Alexander-Arnold’s position and that a back-three “would not suit his strengths”.

Tuchel said of the suggestion he still has improvements to make defensively: “Yeah, I can see that sometimes he relies heavily on his offensive contributions, and gives not so much emphasis on the defensive discipline and effort. I think there is a point to it [the comments].

“This major impact that he had for Liverpool over so many years, if he wants to have this impact in the English national team, then he has to take the defensive part very, very seriously, because when we are talking, especially, about qualifying football and then tournament football, the one defensive error, the one moment where you are not 100 per cent awake, can be decisive, can be the moment where you pack your suitcases and go home.

“We will put this all into consideration, but now is the moment to get to know him. I know him. I played against him. I had phone calls with him. But now is the moment to feel him for nine or 10 days, feel him around the squad, see what he can do, what he can bring, and then from there we go.”