Alexander-Arnold is marginalised in Madrid but may not need a cult of Trent | Jonathan Liew

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Alexander-Arnold claimed to have been learning Spanish for five months, which meant he must have started in May, when – gasp – he was still under contract at Liverpool. The point is how quickly these morsels and snippets get co-opted into a wider narrative, a self-reinforcing cycle of bad choices and bad karma, folly and fall, one in which Alexander-Arnold’s first few months at Madrid would appear to fit seamlessly.This week, for example, he will have plenty of time to polish his Spanish given he has been left out again from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.

There are whispers that Alonso doesn’t remotely rate him, that he prefers a hard-running, all-action tackler in the role, that Alexander-Arnold has looked troubled, overawed, lost. “He comes from a big club, but he’s arrived on a different planet,” wrote Jorge Valdano in his El País column.The sober assessment would be that Alexander-Arnold hasn’t really had a chance yet.

But it’s a tough ask when he can’t even get a start.‘Mohamed Salah looks a fraction of the right winger he was without the right-back who generated such possibility for him.’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianSo who, now, will speak up for the maligned, marginalised Alexander‑Arnold? But – if he doesn’t know it yet – he’s probably going to have to do the heavy lifting himself.