Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he can't understand why England manager Gareth Southgate did not call up Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The Reds full-back was surprisingly left out of the squad for last month's 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers despite being fit.
Instead, Southgate went for Keiran Trippier, Reece James and Kyle Walker as his right-backs but Klopp was baffled as to why his star was snubbed.
"I was surprised when he didn't get the call-up. I respect the decision, of course I do. But I didn't understand it," Klopp was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
"I am a manager myself, I make decisions every day, every weekend, every midweek about team selections and squad selections.
"We always make decisions that other people probably do not understand.
"If Trent Alexander-Arnold is not in the squad of England then England must have an extremely good squad, let me say it like this.
"I have no problem if my players get some criticism. They can get it from me, they can get it from other people.
"I respect that Gareth makes his own decisions, of course, but I didn't understand it anyway because Trent Alexander-Arnold was in the last two seasons at least, let me say the season before and the season before that, the stand out right-back in world football - that is the truth and at an unbelievable young age.
"He started the season with Covid and you can imagine it took him a while to get into the season, but from the moment when he was in the season he was one of our most consistent players and a stand-out player.
"He could play all the time, high level all these types of things, so that cannot be the reason that he was not in the squad.
"If you compare Lionel Messi every year with his best season ever then he is not performing now like he was performing in 2005 and 2006 maybe but he is still the world's best player."
