It was the question nobody was asking: could Trent Alexander-Arnold do it against 10 game but limited Czechs on a mild Tuesday night in Prague? The answer was a resounding yes.

Alexander-Arnold played well after starting for the first time under Thomas Tuchel, demonstrating his value to England by helping them work out the dreaded low block with a trademark assist for Anthony Gordon to settle the nerves in a game coloured by Czechia losing Pavel Sulc to a debatable red card midway through the first half.

The cross for Gordon to make it 1-0 early in the second half was a classic Trent moment. He was smart after a broken passage of play, adjusting quickly when a loose Czechia pass reached him on the right. The situation did not call for Alexander-Arnold to wait for support or check back and look inside for a pass. England needed decisiveness against a defence bent out of shape after losing possession and Alexander-Arnold provided it, taking the opposition out of the equation by getting the ball out of his feet and displaying his unrivalled vision by crossing for Gordon to put England on the way to their first win in Nations League Group A3.

“I always feel I can see things others can’t see,” Alexander-Arnold once said, and here was timely proof of those lock-picking skills. It is unlikely, after all, that Jarell Quansah would have had the imagination to pick out Gordon. Quansah is a good, quick defender but his crosses did not hit the mark when he started at right-back during England’s defeat by Spain on Saturday. Alexander-Arnold, an unused substitute against the world champions, even when England were chasing an equaliser and could have done with better service from the flanks, does not tend to miss the target with his crosses.

Yet the Real Madrid defender has not had many opportunities to express himself in an England shirt. Alexander-Arnold turns 28 next week and made his international debut eight years ago but this was only his 35th cap. He has endured a lot of false dawns at this level. Injury ruled Alexander-Arnold out at Euro 2020 and successive managers have found it hard to find a place for him.

Sir Gareth Southgate could never unlock Alexander-Arnold’s talent. He left him out at times. Trust was fleeting. Southgate was reluctant to use him at right-back and an experiment as a midfielder at Euro 2024 was swiftly aborted.

The general consensus is that Alexander-Arnold cannot defend. Andy Robertson took issue with that view last week, telling the Stick To Football podcast that his former Liverpool teammate has shut down Kylian Mbappé in the past. Tuchel, though, has often seemed ambivalent about Alexander-Arnold. England’s manager has questioned his defensive knowhow and it was not a surprise when he left him out of his World Cup squad.

Alexander-Arnold’s only previous minutes for Tuchel had come during a cameo in midfield against Andorra in June 2025. Eight players featured at right-back before his return here. Even then there was a sense that Alexander-Arnold was only in this squad because others were unavailable. It remains to be seen if a corner has been turned in his relationship with Tuchel.

The problem is that this game told us little about Alexander-Arnold’s defending. England won 2-0, Gordon’s header followed by another Harry Kane goal, but they made a ropey start. An unfamiliar back four struggled but the game changed after Sulc’s dismissal for catching Anderson’s achilles. Czechia moved into a 5-4-0 system and Alexander-Arnold spent little time in his own half.

The weirdness with Alexander-Arnold is that he remains an enigma for England even when his contribution is an obvious highlight. He looked rusty at first. He had little chemistry with Bukayo Saka and some of his touches were loose. A wayward crossfield pass that could have started a Czechia counterattack will be noted by Tuchel.

But his game is about risk. He unbalances opponents, keeps them guessing. Tuchel felt a tweak in Alexander-Arnold’s position at half-time helped. Perhaps it is time to focus less on the weaknesses and more on the upside. Alexander-Arnold, who recorded 86 assists in 354 appearances for Liverpool, is not going to fix England’s lack of control in possession on his own. Those flaws are collective, not individual. But he is one of the best passers England has ever produced. Tuchel has to find a place for him in future squads.

The former Liverpool man is a threat in multiple scenarios. Southgate not bringing him on when England were 2-1 down to France at the 2022 World Cup was an oversight. He is a wildcard option. He can create and score from set pieces. He can open up a deep defence. His defending will be tested against better opponents, but England needed Alexander-Arnold’s ingenuity against Czechia.