Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand has advised England manager Gareth Southgate to select Chelsea’s Reece James at right-back ahead of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Both Alexander-Arnold and James are amongst the best right-backs in the world, but Ferdinand thinks the Chelsea man has the edge when it comes to all round play.

Southgate has attempted on a couple of occasions to play Alexander-Arnold in midfield, in a bid to find space for him in the Three Lions team, but those experiments are yet to come off.

Alexander-Arnold has come under massive criticisms this season due to some poor displays for Liverpool this season and his place in the squad for the upcoming World Cup could be at risk if he doesn’t pick back form.

Speaking on Vibe With Five, Ferdinand said, “This is a difficult one. We are going where we are right now. Reece James is ahead of Trent right now. If I’m a winger I look at who I don’t want to play against more out of the two of them and it would be Reece.

“I think physically he can match people defensively and going forward is ridiculous. Trent’s passing I would say arguably is better over varied distances but I think Reece will score more goals. He’s in there (the penalty area) so much.

“He would patrol the whole area on his own. You could play Trent there as well and he’d run it and both of them can come in here (central areas). That’s the one thing, he plays this position week in and week out. Trent plays more from the right-back area coming onto things.”