Thomas Tuchel’s assessment that Trent Alexander-Arnold has enjoyed a good start to the season will have come as a surprise in England, where few have been watching him at Real Madrid, and in Spain, where rather more have. The full-back is back in the England squad after being left out of the World Cup in the summer, but the evidence behind the recall is thin. Two unremarkable league starts do not amount to a convincing case for his return, nor indeed for his continued exclusion — yet he is in the squad.
The bare numbers are modest. Of Real Madrid’s six league matches this season, Alexander-Arnold has started two, been introduced in two and sat out two, with a single assist to his name. There has been one international call-up alongside it.
His most high-profile appearance of the campaign came against Inter at the Santiago Bernabéu, and he began it not at right-back but in the middle of midfield. At the pre-match press conference, José Mourinho refused to answer a direct and apparently well-informed question about deploying the right-back in midfield, a decision shaped by the absence through injury or suspension of Eduardo Camavinga, Arda Guler, Bernardo Silva, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Thiago Pitarch, as well as his firm conclusion that Jude Bellingham is better used further up the pitch. Afterwards Mourinho said he had no other option, thanked Alexander-Arnold for trying and admitted that the specifics of midfield are different from those of full-back, citing physicality and perspective on the pitch. In short, the experiment did not work, and Alexander-Arnold is not a midfielder.
That is not in itself a reason for England to leave him out. Tuchel was clear that the former Liverpool player had been called up as a right-back and has promised to use him in his natural right-sided position. Nor, though, has Alexander-Arnold made any great change in that natural position, after a first season in Madrid in which he played 30 of 56 games. Left out of the World Cup, he was one of eight players able to join Mourinho at the start of pre-season, which might have given him a head start, and the arrival of a new coach offered the chance of a fresh start too — but it has not worked out that way.
On the opening day he began on the bench, coming on with 10 minutes remaining as Madrid finally found the late Carlos Espí goal that defeated Espanyol. He then sat out the 4-1 win over Real Sociedad. In both matches Denzel Dumfries, the right-back signed over the summer, began ahead of him, and Dumfries has since made four starts in the league and one in the Champions League.
Against promoted Málaga, currently 19th, Alexander-Arnold got 90 minutes and delivered a performance greeted with enthusiasm, one that suggested this might be a new beginning. One Madrid-based paper called it “a new Trent”, and it was the kind of display that could lead, eventually, to an international call-up. He had more touches and completed more passes than anyone else on the pitch, created two chances and supplied Kylian Mbappé with the assist for Madrid’s third goal in a 4-0 win, his passing carrying the range and precision that impressed.
Not much followed. He came on as a substitute against Real Betis with the score at 0-0 and played 26 minutes as Madrid lost 1-0 to a Troy Parrott goal. Against Rayo he stayed on the bench. Against Elche in midweek he was withdrawn with three minutes of normal time remaining, with Madrid having let a 2-0 lead slip to 2-2 before another late Espí goal rescued them. It was a night of rotation, and the conclusion drawn from his involvement was that he will not start Sunday’s derby against Atlético. The long-standing doubts about his defensive capabilities were not allayed in that Elche game or in the few before it.
So the record stands: six league matches, two starts, two substitute appearances, two games unused, one assist and one England call-up. Tuchel may be convinced by what he has seen of Alexander-Arnold this season, and he may be right to bring him back, but on the evidence available neither the case for the recall nor the case against it has been proven.