Can Trent Alexander-Arnold hack it in midfield against the top dogs at Euro 2024? He's being asked to do something he doesn't really want to do, writes CRAIG HOPE

Speak to former players and they will tell you that the very best take pictures in their mind, especially those with the remit to create.

The problem for Trent Alexander-Arnold - Gareth Southgate’s midfield experiment - is that he has been taking those pictures for the best part of eight years from the position of right back. In the middle of the pitch, he is still getting to grips with the camera.

As one observer who saw him emerge through the England youth ranks as a midfielder says: ‘He has been re-programmed now.’ The same source remembers watching Alexander-Arnold star for England’s Under-17s, and how everyone present left convinced they had seen an international central midfielder in the making. They were right, except the young lad in the making is yet to be made.

Take last Monday night at St James’ Park. Alexander-Arnold played for an hour in midfield against Bosnia. For all the passes he played - and there were plenty of them - none penetrated a team ranked 74th in the world, one place below Northern Ireland. England were pedestrian and, in Alexander-Arnold, they had a wanderer doing little to hasten their step.

Then, for the final half hour, he reverted to right back, the position he has played since the coaches of Liverpool’s Under-18s decided it was his best chance of breaking into the first-team. He duly broke in and locked out all of his rivals.

It was little surprise, then, that his influence against Bosnia was transformed by the change. The pictures he took at right back were instant. Those from earlier, by contrast, were still processing. It was obvious to all on Tyneside that the player was happier in more familiar surrounds. His passing was incisive, certain and, some of it, so audacious that it drew shrieks of approval from the schoolchildren in the stands. The kids weren’t getting excited when he stroked the ball sideways around the halfway line.

Then, his crowning moment, a first-time volley into the bottom corner from an angle that defied footballing physics. He was only in that position - six yards wide of the six-yard area - having crept there undetected from right back.

And yet, when England’s squad was confirmed for the European Championship a few days later, he was listed as a midfielder. Yes, he is seen as a hybrid option, but Southgate will not trust him defensively against better teams. Both Kyle Walker and Kieran Trippier - and perhaps even Ezri Konsa and Joe Gomez - are ahead of Alexander-Arnold at right back.

Who would have thought that would be the case when, in 2020, Brazil’s legendary right back Cafu told Mail Sport: ‘Alexander-Arnold can take the position of right back to another level. I think we've started changing the narrative, the way people view full backs.It's not just the goalscorer who should be the best player in the world. It is totally wrong that some great players never won the Ballon d'Or because of their position. Nowadays, full backs should be seen as the main protagonists in the game.’

Southgate, rather, sees Alexander-Arnold as a No.8, evidenced by his shirt number for the finals. But surely England - tournament favourites, don’t forget - are better than forcing square pegs into round holes? If the theory is they can afford to accommodate Alexander-Arnold’s creative skills in the group stage against opponents who will be difficult to break down, why not use him for that purpose from right back?

We should also consider this - who would be his forward outlet from midfield? Harry Kane does not want the ball in behind, the one pass that Alexander-Arnold can drop like few others. Jude Bellingham, Cole Palmer and Phil Foden would all prefer the ball to their feet, too. Even Bukayo Saka wants to cut in and do his own damage rather than chase the other side of a full-back.

And isn’t this what we saw against Bosnia? Opponents sitting deep, closing space and England playing in front of them rather than behind. Kane has already warned that is what they will face in their group matches. Alexander-Arnold was redundant for those 60 minutes, trying to be something he is not. The landscape through his lens was too crowded.

It could, of course, still work in the early games here in Germany. He is a wonderful footballer and maybe he is the best option from himself, Conor Gallagher, Adam Wharton and Kobbie Mainoo to play alongside Declan Rice. He has the most high-pressure, top-level experience from that quartet - albeit at right back - and his set-piece delivery alone could swing tight games in England’s favour.

He would have Rice as his insurance policy and, with license to push into areas unpopulated because the likes of Foden and Bellingham are being attended to elsewhere, Alexander-Arnold has it within him to strike on goal from mid-range. You can see why Southgate believes it can be successful, in the short-term at least.

But then what? What happens when Spain or Italy comes along in the quarter-final? Or France in the semi-final? Would Southgate want his square peg disappearing down that round hole as England are over-ran in midfield?

It is a project with which he will persevere on the training pitches of Blankenheim this week ahead of Sunday’s opener against Serbia in Gelsenkirchen. But maybe Southgate should revisit the 25-year-old’s own words from 2020.

‘I've always enjoyed right back as there is a lot more freedom going forward,’ he said. ‘It's a lot more chaotic in the middle.’

And that is the bigger picture here - Alexander-Arnold is being asked to do something he doesn’t really want to do.