England manager Thomas Tuchel has doubled down on his decision to snub former Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold but conceded that the 27-year-old may have deserved a chance.
The German head coach responded to a social media post from the Real Madrid full-back captioned: "Madrid and nothing else". However, the former Chelsea boss failed to be drawn on the matter.
Alexander-Arnold was a notable omission from the final Three Lions squad for the forthcoming international break as the likes of Ben White and Djed Spence were preferred.
The post was published in the aftermath of his snub as he was forced to remain in Madrid while his club teammates Fede Valverde and Jude Bellingham are set to face-off at Wembley on Friday.
Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool last summer, but with the World Cup in a matter of months, Tuchel felt that they had found a better structure defensively with the options at his disposal.
He said: "As a response to not being nominated? Fair enough, fair enough.
"I think it's a very hard decision that we took, there's no doubt about his talent, no doubt about his career and what he can give to teams.
"We created a slightly different game model when he was not in camp in September, October and November. It was built off intensity, positivity, building in the profile of the right full-back, overlaps, underlaps, it's a different profile of player who were with us and performed so well."
The defender's debut season in the Spanish capital has been stop-start due to injury. As a result, he has missed each of the last two international breaks with a muscle problem and it has proved crucial in the Germans' thinking.
England take on Uruguay and Japan before their preparations officially turn to the forthcoming tournament in North America.
But with two months for Alexander-Arnold to play his way into the thinking, Tuchel hasn't completely shut the door. He added: "We stick to this guy, it is on his back, he was with us in June.
"He should've deserved a second chance, maybe, I'm aware of that. It's a hard decision, he took it on the chin, he will keep on going.
"I'll make sure I'll see some matches from Real Madrid to get my last impressions. He's on the long list, everyone is still in mix. At the moment, some of the guys are just ahead."
Mohamed Salah will leave Liverpool at the end of the season and Fanatics has cut the price of this season's kits with 'M. Salah 11' printing.
