Klopp says Southgate has given Alexander-Arnold added motivation

Jurgen Klopp was puzzled by Trent Alexander-Arnold's England omission.

But the Liverpool boss reckons it will help the Reds as the defender is now fired up to prove Gareth Southgate wrong.

The Three Lions boss surprised many on Merseyside by leaving Alexander-Arnold out of the national squad for the recent World Cup qualifiers.

Klopp said: “We always make decisions that other people probably do not understand.

“I respect that Gareth makes his own decisions, of course, but I didn’t understand it anyway because Trent Alexander-Arnold was in the last two seasons at least, let me say the season before and the season before that, the stand out right back in world football.

“That is the truth and at an unbelievable young age.

“He was the stand out right back in world football. Now he has started the season with Covid early on which is not good.

“You can imagine it took him a while to get into the season, but from that moment on when he was in the season he was one of our most consistent players and a stand out player.

“So that cannot be the reason that he was not in the squad.

“If you compare Lionel Messi every year with his best season ever then he is not performing now like he was performing in 2005 and 2006 maybe. But he is still the world’s best player. That is one thing.”

Alexander-Arnold stayed behind and trained with the other Liverpool players not involved in international duty.

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Klopp got a glimpse of what the England snub has done for motivating his right back.

And ahead of tonight's clash with Arsenal, he reckons it could fire him up for the remainder of the season to ensure he is part of the Euro 2020 squad.

The German said: “He was not with the national team now so he had time to train.

“He trained at an extremely high level and he showed a reaction when there is no need to do so.

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“He was really ‘in’ the sessions so that was good. He enjoyed the sessions a lot.

“He is a very ambitious boy, so I am sure he wants to be in the England squad.

“I know he wants to be in the England squad and he will try everything to be there again.

“If Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the squad of England then England must have an extremely good squad. Let me say it like this.”

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