Wayne Rooney has been speaking about England ahead of their World Cup opener with Iran on Monday and states which player intrigues him most heading into the tournament.
Speaking in his latest column for The Times, the Manchester United legend stated that Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold intrigues him most ahead of England’s opening game as he is unsure what manager Gareth Southgate will do with the right-back.
Rooney said via the Liverpool Echo: “I’m really intrigued to see what Gareth Southgate does with Trent Alexander-Arnold. Personally, I would start him.”
There are a lot of questions about Alexander-Arnold when it comes to the England set-up and with Reece James missing the World Cup and Kyle Walker still not fully recovered from an injury, the right-back slot is set to be occupied by either the Liverpool star or Kieran Trippier.
Gareth Southgate has shown to be more of a pragmatic coach when it comes to how he likes to set up his England team and that could go against Alexander-Arnold as Trippier is a better player defensively.
However, England should be on the front foot against Iran and with the Liverpool star’s attacking qualities, a lot of people would agree with Rooney and start the 24-year-old.