Jude Bellingham has condemned the “rubbish” spoken by critics about Liverpool star Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Reds vice-captain is currently with the England squad for Euro 2024. Sunday night saw the Three Lions claim a 1-0 victory over Serbia in their tournament opener in Germany.
Bellingham scored the only goal of the contest in the first half to secure the three points for England in their first fixture of the competition. Alexander-Arnold played 69 minutes of the match before being substituted in place of Chelsea’s Conor Gallagher.
England boss Gareth Southgate selected Alexander-Arnold to play in midfield rather than his traditional right-back spot, with Manchester City’s Kyle Walker in that position.
Bellingham took the opportunity after the game to praise the Liverpool vice-captain and hit back at the criticisms that have been aimed at Alexander-Arnold for his defensive abilities.
“I know people talk a lot of rubbish but he’s so aggressive with that back-to-goal pressure and it really helped me as well because it meant I got a breather when he went out.
“I think we understand each other well with the ball, he wants to play positive all the time, he wants to play forward all the time.
“We accept as team-mates who have that kind of quality that we are going to lose the ball and that’s fine. We will win it back for each other and we will keep playing. I thought he was brilliant.”
Alexander-Arnold and England will now prepare to face Denmark on Thursday evening in their second Group C fixture of the competition. The other match of the group ended in a 1-1 draw between Denmark and Slovenia on Sunday.
