Look at today for example. Yes Doku completed some dribbles, but most times Trent funneled him to the byline or inside and Doku wasn’t really threatening for the most part. Yet the prevailing narrative is that he got destroyed by Doku.
He has actually been decent to good at defending this season yet people say he’s been a horrific defender. I don’t think this is quite true if you watch him play.
I won’t claim that he’s an amazing defender but he’s not a bad one either, he’s just a perfectly average to good defender but the narrative is that he’s a liability. It’s frustrating to see.
Did you all just miss Ake sliding past him to assist Haaland? That was just so poor
The goal today, Trent’s defending played part of the blame again. Awful defending.
Great player, terrible defender. Can’t be trusted.
Incredibly overrated. He’d struggle outside of Pool
The problem with Alexander-Arnold isn’t so much in games like today’s where he can get himself fired up and he knows that if he doesn’t do his job his side will be punished, it’s in the games against mid/lower-table opposition where he shifts too much of his focus onto the attack and neglects the defensive part of his job.
I’ve said for a long time, it’s not that he can’t defend it’s that he often doesn’t fancy doing it. It’s the dawdling back over the halfway line while an attack is breaking down his flank, it’s the standing still while triangles are played around him, it’s the shirking out of tackles & headers. He knows if he does that against City he’ll be putting his team in trouble, especially with Doku playing as well as he has been.
Always has been overblown. And honest to god this is from somebody who is not the greatest fan of Liverpool, to put it lightly.
Liverpool vs PSG when he’s like 20 up against prime Neymar - clean sheet. Liverpool play a high line an Salah doesn’t come back to help too much. The style of play means he’s going to be exposed a lot. It’s so ridiculously over the top
He is a very good defender. Not world class but better than most in the league. He just gets caught out with long balls and misjudges where it’s going. The CL final of 2022, Vinicius jnr, was going to roast him all game… but he won most of the battles.
He’s obviously not a bad defender. That narrative is just a lazy talking point peddled by sub standard pundits to give the person in the pub something to talk about.
Football punditry does nothing to grow awareness and understanding and just plays into the tired tropes. Football writing however can be exceptional and insightful. Punditry in this country should be much better.
Anyway, Trent is an elite footballer so obviously he can defend. Is it as good a part of his game as how he supports the team going forward, no. It’s not for me. For Liverpool that’s rarely an issue and he gives so much positive.
It’s a bit like Zinchenko, he’s not a bad defender but he does make mistakes or swith off more than the real elite full back would. He gives so much to the team with the rest of his game that you have to balance.
TAA is an elite striker of the ball and he gives you assists etc. He will remain a great full back but he will never be one of the best due to defensive lapses.
It started from Neville’s position as best prem RB coming under threat. He pushed the focus on his defending relentlessly after they won the European cup. Before that it was all praise strangely
Trent never had a problem with defending per se.
His problem has usually been concentration levels and switching off while defending.
When Doku is running at him, Trent is pretty good. But when the ball is cleared and Ake is moving forward, he switched off.
Its kind of weird because he usually performs well in defense when put in a spotlight having a guy like Doku in front of him. His actual problem in defense is his positioning during counter-attacks when he often forgets what he needs to do or falls asleep putting himself in bad positions.
Always been the way.
But apparently Reece James is amazing despite rarely playing and being average when he does.
the thing is that he’s not a terrible defender but he’s not a good enough defender to be considered the best right back in the world, which is what alot of people claim
He’s the best player who plays at right back, but not the best traditional right back.
Being the best player is about more than being the best at a certain part of the game.
If a DM who is the best player in the world at tackling has awful positioning then they aren’t the best player at DM in the world. The best player at DM is the one who is elite at both tackling and positioning and anything else you need to be a good DM for your team.
If a striker is the best at shooting in the world but has awful positioning and can’t get into places to score lots of goals (e.g. always being offside, can’t find space in the box, doesn’t have the pace to get in behind etc) then they aren’t the best player at striker in the world.
For some reason when it comes to passing people really forget/don’t care about anything else. Not saying passing is the only thing Trent’s good at. His shooting, set pieces, vision etc is all great. Technically, he’s a brilliant footballer. So I get why people say he’s the best “player” at RB. But for me the best player at RB is the player who has the combination of skills that makes them the best RB. The best RB is the best player at RB.
None of this is hate on Trent. He’s a phenomenal player. I just think he has weaknesses and those weaknesses mean he’s not the outright best in the world.
What do you mean some dribbles? He got destroyed today by Doku who got past him at will.
he did get absolutely rinsed by ake for the goal.
Yeah OP conveniently leaving out that Ake just strolled past him like he was a training cone.
I don’t think it is lazy commentary or overblown at all. Trent is amazing going forwards, but he can’t defend for shit
“can’t defend for shit”
These takes sometimes, fuck sake.
Bottom 56% of RB’s for tackles. Bottom 88% of RB’s for clearances. Bottom 88% of RB’s for blocks. Bottom 84% of RB’s for aerial duels won.
Yeah mate, he is a fucking stellar defender isn’t he. LMAO you Liverpool fans cope so hard.
The guy is pretty much 99th percentile of RB’s in all attacking aspects. People recognise that, he is one of the best in the world. But he cannot defend, stop lying to yourselves and just appreciate him for the player that he is.
Trying to feed people false narratives about him being a good, or even decent, premier league defender is simply not true. Nobody believes it either, because it is plain for all to see. Don’t know who you are trying kid, but you are only kidding yourselves.
I’m not sure these stats are right , surely it would make more sense if he was in the bottom 8% for some of these stats , like if you said “he’s bottom 10% for ground duals among fullbacks” that would make sense
Same way if you’re talking about attacking stats you want a player to be in a high percentile eg 87th percentile for crossing accuracy
Yeah I worded it differently because this is the internet and I fully expect that a lot of people don’t understand what percentile means. So, instead of saying 44, 11, 11, 16 percentile, I said bottom 88% for example. I should have said either top 88%, or bottom 11%, you are correct.
No worries
Liverpool fan here and I totally agree. The man can’t defend. World class ball striker but is not a defender. And I hate the narrative but he’s so good going forward. That would be same thing as saying yes or striker can’t score goals or create but he’s so good at coming back to defend…. Ridiculous
Is Zinchenko a LB to you? Honest question Arsenal fan to Arsenal fan.
Is that tackles or tackle percentage? Because that’s a stat that depends on many things - eg possession. If you have more of the ball then you’re going to have less chances to make tackles. So players on high possession teams will have fewer tackles.
Blocks and clearances are also about play style. We don’t sit deep, so no blocks, and we play possession football, so no clearances.
Aerial duels are absolutely a weakness of Trent. It’s funny that people talk about Vinicius rinsing Trent in the CL final, when in reality Trent won every 1v1. But his poor concentration meant he got beaten by Vinicius at a back post header, so people ignore everything else and jump on the false narrative.
Allison caught the whole team by surprise, Van Dijk and Matip also got “rinsed.” It was a good counter attack off a large distribution error. Trent made a lot of big defensive plays today
yeah i actually was impressed. but 3 players in that sequence could’ve done slightly better and they wouldn’t have conceded
You can say that about any goal in fairness
Yeah but same can be said for any goal. Somebody could have closed down Trent. As an LFC fan, I was just hoping to score and lose by less than 2
true. but i just feel trent needs to do a lot better than letting the defender just glide by him. more than made up for it
Alisson made the initial error, then Szoboszlai and TAA got beaten far, far too easily.
Yes, the distribution error made the opportunity in the first place. But Liverpool don’t concede there if Aké doesn’t take two defenders out of the game with a pretty simple sidestep
So we can all agree that Trent wasn’t solely at fault for the goal then lol
He got rinsed a bunch of times. Guy is an unbelievable passer of the ball but defending is simply not his strong suit.