Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has reignited his criticism of Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold. The out-spoken Irishman took aim at the role he played in the winning goal that saw England suffer a historic 2-1 defeat against Greece.
Vangelis Pavlidis scored twice for the nation ranked 48th in the FIFA rankings, including a stoppage-time effort that downed Lee Carsley’s side. Pavlidis opened the scoring after the interval but their resistance was broken in the dying minutes when Jude Bellingham struck.
However, the Benfica striker took advantage of a calamitous defensive showing in the fourth minute of added time to send the Greeks to the top of the Nations League B group. Speaking ahead of the clash with Finland, Keane took aim at the Three Lions defence, singling out Alexander-Arnold for criticism.
“The winning goal, England got back into the game and you’re thinking, ‘whatever you do, don’t lose it’,” he began. “There’s three players straight away, even just looking at Trent, Rice, look at Trent.
“We were kind of laughing at it, they get themselves in a mess – fair play to Greece they’re looking to win it. We look at the manager there, Stones for the first goal – dangling a leg, he’s done that before.
“These are players with 70 to 80 caps, is that down to the manager to get them in the right mindset? It’s up to the players to start the game properly.”
Before kick-off, the 53-year-old aimed one final dig, he said: “If you saw him the other night defending, it never looked like he’d played right-back before.”
On Sunday, the caretaker England boss rang the changes from the defeat which saw Alexander-Arnold deployed at left-back for the first time in his professional career.