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.
He doesn’t have the defensive instincts that you hone as a young player, so there are times that he doesn’t ‘sense’ the danger, and he looks poor as a result. But, barring that, he as everything you need as a top level modern wing-back AND there isn’t another player in that position as creative and/or technically gifted as he is.
Put it this way, if Liverpool’s academy had planned him to be an FB during his development and not a midfielder, he’d probably be the best to ever play the position. Count yourselves lucky 😉