Trent Alexander-Arnold has revealed he has been working with England's coaching staff for a year in preparation for his central midfield role
The Liverpool vice-captain made only his second tournament start for the Three Lions when featuring in the engine room during their 1-0 Group C win
Alexander-Arnold played alongside match-winner Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice in midfield
The 25-year-old experienced a mixed evening in the position but nevertheless impressed more than a number of his colleagues as Gareth Southgate's side struggled
when asked about playing in midfield, Alexander-Arnold said:
"It was good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt prepared through the conversations and the work we've done throughout the week.”
"It may seem brand new, but it's not. Me, the manager and Steve Holland, we've been working very hard on this role for the past year so a lot of preparation has gone into it, a lot of information, learning and a lot of analysing has gone into it.
"They gave me a role to do and hopefully they feel like I executed it and helped to contribute to the win and keep a clean sheet."
Speaking to UEFA.com, Alexander-Arnold added:
“I found (playing in midfield) good. It was physically demanding but when you play with the likes of Declan and Jude and with an experienced back four behind you, who communicate excellently, they talk you through the game, so it's hard to go wrong."
And of the win over Serbia, Alexander-Arnold said to ITV Sport:
“We know there are things we could have done better and we'll work on that but we did a lot of things right that we were talking about throughout the week.
"We knew what we were going to come up against - a team that wanted to play a little bit of long ball, look to bully us, a very physical team, put crosses into the box, and we stopped them from doing what they wanted to do as much as possible.
"When you have the quality we've got, we go and get our goal as well. Jude was man of the match.
“He was everywhere on the pitch, he put everything in, he's a player with quality that any team would be lucky to have - especially us."
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