TRENT BRIDGES GAP IN A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY

HIS reward for helping Liverpool reach the Champions League final was a date on an even bigger stage. Now Trent Alexander-Arnold is determined to make the most of the experience. The 19-year-old had never appeared in a senior squad before being named in Gareth Southgate’s final 23 for the World Cup in Russia. A potentially career-defining summer awaits after his journey into what he calls the ‘unknown’. ‘It’s a lot more relaxed and a lot more together than I thought it might have been as an England squad,’ said Alexander-Arnold, who plays right-back at Anfield on the opposite flank from Scotland star Andrew Robertson. ‘Coming in, I didn’t expect the team to have such a good morale but I’ve been blown away about how close every player is with each other. ‘I haven’t been in the set-up before. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be, if it was really strict or really laid back. It was going into the unknown. But all the senior players — all the players in general really — helped me become part of the team. ‘There’s people you quietly sit and watch. You want to see how they go about their day, you want to see what they do to make themselves better, how you can pick up little things every single day to improve yourself.’ Alexander-Arnold, who made his debut in the farewell friendly against Costa Rica, sees few major differences between the England dressing room and the one he has experienced at Anfield except for the fact everybody in the Three Lions squad speaks the same language. Even then, he has found his Scouse accent a little too pronounced for some. ‘The main difference is at the club there are language barriers, you’re not going to get that with the national team,’ he said. ‘It makes it easier that everyone speaks the same language, even though some of the players find it hard to understand me.’ Although being well looked after, he revealed his mother Diane has made sure to keep tabs over the phone. ‘She checks up every day to make sure I’m wearing sun cream!’ he said. ‘To see them with a smile on their face and to be proud of me, that’s probably the biggest incentive for me in football.’