Gareth Southgate has opened up on why he has named both Ben Godfrey and Trent Alexander-Arnold in his provisional squad for the upcoming European Championship.
Alexander-Arnold was somewhat of a surprise inclusion given he was dropped by Southgate for England's World Cup qualifiers back in March.
The Three Lions boss stated at his last squad announcement that he felt the Liverpool defender had not been 'at the level' he had been previously this season.
But since then, Alexander-Arnold has been in fine form and was instrumental in helping the Reds finish third in the Premier League table.
That impressive form has led to the 22-year-old being recalled by Southgate, who believes the Liverpool Academy graduate could also operate in midfield for his side.
“You’re looking at four right-backs, people feel I have an obsession with right-backs – I just see good footballers,” Southgate told the media on Tuesday afternoon.
“[Kieran] Trippier can play right or left-back, Trent can play right-back, wing-back, I think he can play midfield. In the last few days I’ve seen Reece James right of a three, at wing-back, in midfield.
“We’re going to a tournament and those sort of flexible players who can fulfil different roles are hugely important to us.
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“So we really don’t know how the next few weeks will play out in terms of injuries, we’ve got too many question-marks as I sit here today, but that will become far clearer. We know what we’d like to do, and we have good contingencies in place.”
Godfrey's impressive form for Everton this season has also been rewarded, with the defender earning a first senior call-up alongside Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale.
“These two [White and Godfrey] are very flexible,” Southgate replied when asked why the pair had been included in his provisional squad.
“They can play in different roles as well – left, right, midfield in White’s case. This is a great opportunity for us to get to know them a bit better.
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“There’s no way of knowing how long they’ll be with us, but it should be a fantastic experience.”
Southgate has named a 33-man group that will be cut to 26 players on June 1, allowing him to include injury doubts such as Harry Maguire, Jordan Henderson and Kalvin Phillips.
"I think our situation is more complicated than any other country at the moment, so we were always going to need some additional players for the first part of our camp,” he said on delaying announcing his squad.
"We felt that more time would allow us to make better decisions.
“There are a lot of unknowns, and information and evidence is really important when you're making decisions. We'll have a lot more in the next seven days."
Before Southgate added: “With this squad we've got a nice balance with some young players who, whether they're with us for one week or five weeks, it's going to be a brilliant experience for them."
England's first match of Euro 2020 is against Croatia on June 13 at Wembley, but before that they have friendlies against Austria June 2 and Romania four days later.
