Thomas Tuchel has admitted Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defiant response to being left out of the latest England squad was ‘fair enough’ as the Three Lions boss refused to close the door on his chances of winning a place on the plane to the World Cup.
Alexander-Arnold was a surprising omission from Tuchel’s extended England group for the current international break, with the former Liverpool man missing out on a spot in the 35-man squad.
He later took to Instagram to deliver an emphatic message following his exclusion as he posted: ‘Madrid. Y nada mas’, which translates to ‘Madrid. And nothing else’.
Tuchel was asked for his views on the post by ITV ahead of England’s friendly against Uruguay at Wembley this Friday, and was empathetic of Alexander-Arnold’s position.
‘As a response to being not nominated?’ Tuchel asked when made aware of the full back’s post. ‘Well, fair enough, fair enough.
‘I think it is a very hard decision that we took. No doubt about his talent, no doubt about his career and what he can give to teams.
‘We created a slightly different game model when he was not in camp in September, October, November – it was a game model that was built on intensity and positivity, built even on the profile of the right full back on overlaps, underlaps, very intense.
Q: [TAA] posted “Madrid and nothing else”, what do you make of that??
A: Fair enough, it was a very hard decision that we took
Thomas Tuchel on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s omission from the England squad ???????@England pic.twitter.com/pEtvowVvrE
— ITV Football (@itvfootball) March 26, 2026 
‘It was a slightly different profile of players in camp who performed so well. We just stick to these guys.’
Alexander-Arnold has seen his situation stabilise at Real Madrid since the departure of Xabi Alonso and the promotion of Alvaro Arbeloa from the club’s third division reserve team in January after a rocky start to his time at the club.
Although he hasn’t enjoyed a significant uptick in playing time, reports suggest that Arbeloa thinks highly of the Englishman.
Tuchel, though, doesn’t think highly enough of him to include him in his squad on this occasion. Tino Livramento and Djed Spence have been preferred on the right, with Jarell Quansah also included in the original squad.
When Quansah pulled out through injury, Ben White was recalled to replace him, while Reece James is also injured.
Tuchel refused to rule out the defender earning a spot in his final squad for North America, and admitted that he maybe should have in fact called him up to duty.
‘He was with us in June, he should have maybe deserved a second chance,’ Tuchel said. ‘It is a very hard decision, I am aware of it.
‘I know it creates noise when you leave a player like Trent out. We had a call, I tried to explain the situation. He just has to accept it. It’s just a choice. A ‘sportive’ choice. A difficult choice and maybe a hard choice – and maybe to a certain degree unfair, but these choices have to be made.
‘I think I know what Trent can give us, so the choice was for Ben (White) and for Tino Livramento, to stick with the guys who actually had good camps with us in September, November, December. They also need the minutes and there are a lot of good players for this position and Djed Spence as well, who fights for a ticket.
‘He took it on his chin, he will keep on going, I will make sure I see some matches from Real Madrid and maybe a Champions League match live to get my last impressions. He is on a long list and everyone is still in the mix but at the moment some other guys are just ahead.’