It is the question that Gareth Southgate admits he has turned over and over in his mind. Who plays alongside Declan Rice in his England midfield at Euro 2024? “In the last few months I’ve been thinking: ‘Declan with who?’” the manager said two weeks ago. “And: ‘Who if without Declan?’”
Let us move on from the second part of that because it is simply unthinkable. There is no other No 6 at Southgate’s disposal, after the falls from grace of Kalvin Phillips and Jordan Henderson. And that, as an aside, overlooks how Rice’s best position may very well be as a No 8.
Southgate knows he has a unique talent in the Liverpool player, one he is keen to harness and there was a point at the end of the 2022-23 season when he seemed to have found the clarity. Southgate had tried Alexander-Arnold once before on the right of a midfield three in a 4-3-3 system – against Andorra at Wembley in September 2021 – and it did not work.
But then, in the qualifying ties against Malta away and North Macedonia at home, it did. It was wonderful to see Alexander-Arnold strut his stuff as the right-sided No 8, showing off the full range of his passing, albeit against low‑ranked opposition. His England future looked set and it did not involve him playing at right-back.
Things have changed. The shift has been subtle but significant and it has been driven by the inexorable rise of Jude Bellingham during his debut season at Real Madrid. Southgate realised early on this season – in the friendly against Scotland at Hampden Park in September, to be precise – that he needed to have Bellingham as high up the pitch as possible, in a No 10 role, and so began the move from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1.
Consider Southgate’s words after the Wembley friendly against Australia in October when he started Alexander-Arnold at right‑back but asked him to get up and across into midfield. After the hour, Southgate moved him to the right of the midfield two in the 4‑2‑3-1 and he watched him come to seek space to the right, away from a congested central zone.
“I think he’s an 8,” Southgate said. “Although we didn’t play with an 8 [against Australia], which is why we got him in at full-back, it is an option. He’s got qualities that are very different to all of our midfield players and we want to keep looking at it as much as we can.”
It is an option that Southgate has not really explored and certainly not against top-level opposition; partly through the formation shift, partly through circumstance. Alexander‑Arnold was unavailable for the September fixtures and, crucially, the ones in March against Brazil and Belgium. Conor Gallagher partnered Rice in the first game; Kobbie Mainoo was alongside him in the second.