I think it's weird he's made a comment about him not being picked for not being in form, when he's actually looked like one of our better players in recent matches. Whereas he was picking him earlier in September and Trent was waaaaaay out of form then.
But I don't think anyone's ever accused Gareth Southgate of being a smart man
Probably would have been better for a player that looks like he's struggling with confidence to not have publicly mentioned his form. Especially having stood by him when he was in the worst form of his career - and he's picked and played other players for England without real consideration for their recent form. But international managers do that pretty frequently for players that have performed for them.
I don't think it's particularly good man management from Southgate. I also think he doesn't really like playing Trent for whatever reason, tbh. He's preferred Walker and Trippier even when Trent was in better form than the both of them.
It's better for us that he's not selected, I think it's just a bit weird he's brought up the players' form for the reasons I listed above. Especially when he's got an easy and non-controversial answer built in to not selecting any of England's right backs: "we've got a lot of good right backs at the moment and I can't pick all of them all the time."