LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 5: Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace and Elliot Anderson of Nottingham Forest during the Premier League match between Crystal Palace FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Selhurst Park on May 5, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
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No Liverpool players have been selected by Thomas Tuchel for England’s latest national team, but there are a handful that have been included that would improve Arne Slot’s side as it struggles to defend its Premier League title.
Liverpool players have been mainstays of the England men’s national team for decades. Two of the most capped players in England history, Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson, regularly turned out for both club and country while at Liverpool in the last 20 years.
Others throughout the years, such as Roger Hunt, Emlyn Hughes, Phil Neal, Kevin Keegan, Steve McManaman, Jamie Carragher, Emile Heskey, and Trent Alexander-Arnold have meant there has always been a Liverpool presence for England at international level.
There have been rare occasions where squads have not featured a player from the Anfield club, but they have been few and far between. When it happened in September, it was the first time since 2021 that the England team had not included a Liverpool player. It might become a more frequent occurrence, though.
Scouser Alexander-Arnold is still in the England picture, but left Liverpool for Real Madrid this summer. Curtis Jones remains in and around the national team and could make the 26-man squad for the 2026 World Cup, but like Alexander-Arnold has been left out of Thomas Tuchel’s latest selection.
Trent Alexander-Arnold right-back of Real Madrid and England and Curtis Jones central midfield of Liverpool and England before the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD4 match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid C.F. at Anfield on November 4, 2025 in Liverpool, United Kingdom. (Photo by Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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This comes on the back of Liverpool fielding a first XI without any English players for the first time ever in a top-flight league game back in January this year, and doing the same for the first time in a European fixture when they played Atlético Madrid in the Champions League last month.
The global and inclusive nature of the English Premier League, and by extension other English leagues, is something to be celebrated, but the decline of English representatives in a team like Liverpool’s can hint at some problems.
Some of this is linked to profit and sustainability rules. These rules mean it is more advantageous financially for English clubs to sell any promising homegrown players for pure profit rather than keep them at the club and introduce them into the first team.
Liverpool has recently sold Jarell Quansah and Tyler Morton in this manner, and while these players were not guaranteed to make it to the standard of Liverpool first team regular, it is more beneficial for the clubs to sell such players for profit than it is to keep them around as squad players to see if they do.
Liverpool’s savvy selling is one of the reasons it was able to spend so much money on new players this summer, but despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars, it is still in need of reinforcements and improvements in some areas.
This is where a couple of players in the current England squad might be worth looking at.
Midfield areas look especially light. Some of this is down to tactical issues, but there has been a drop off in the form of last season’s standout midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, and an apparent lack of trust from the manager in defensive midfielder Wataru Endo. Defensive midfield suddenly looks like an issue for Liverpool.
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 25: Wataru Endo, Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool during the Carabao Cup Final match between Chelsea and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on February 25, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
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Slot regularly talks about winning duels, but this season it is often being left to the defence to win them in the final moment, rather than putting out fires further up the field.
A combination of teams working out that long passing gives them a better chance of defeating Liverpool, and a lack of defensive ability elsewhere in Liverpool’s team, has seen Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté make more defensive contributions this season than at any other point in their Liverpool careers.
Van Dijk is making 8.73 clearances per 90 minutes this season, having never made more than six per 90 in previous seasons at Liverpool—it’s usually closer to four.
It’s a similar story for Konaté, who is making 6.76 clearances per 90, having averaged 3.6 across his previous four seasons.
Clearances can be an indication of defensive desperation. To solve this, Liverpool needs to work out its structure against long-ball teams and find some players that will bring more defensive solidity in midfield and ideally a bit of deep-lying creativity for the attack, too.
The two obvious standout players to provide this both happen to be in the current England squad.
Crystal Palace’s Adam Wharton is one of those players and has been linked with a move to Liverpool for several months, but the impressive Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson might be the more suitable option for Slot’s team at this moment in time.
Ideally for Liverpool, it would sign both, but it would likely need to sell again before doing so.
The unfancied Endo seems the obvious option in this regard, but the club could entertain offers for Alexis Mac Allister if it results in them having funds for both players.
Liverpool having no players in the England team isn’t necessarily an issue in itself, but the current England team does happen to have a few players that would greatly improve the defending champions.
The club did try and fail to sign English center-back Marc Guehi in the summer, and perhaps it’s now time Liverpool looks at its midfield and looks closer to home for its next transfer spree.
