Why hes a contracted player till 30th June. The few extra games for Bradley make no difference we know what he is. The disrespect Trent is getting is truly outstanding for someone who has done so much especially compared to how Mo and Virgil have been tret in the same period.
Too much hair.
It’s nothing personal, and I wish Trent all the best.
But Bradley is the player who is going to be here for the future so we prioritise him.
Echo:
Trent Alexander-Arnold has handed Liverpool a major fitness boost after training with his team-mates on Wednesday. And Darwin Nunez is also expected to come back into contention after he was well enough to play a part in the session.
Good news.
Laugh as much as you want, for me TAA is the more gifted player by some distance but defensively I’d take Williams every day of the week.
I disagree it still comes across as rather sour grapes but everyone is entitled to there thoughts.
I wouldn’t laugh at you, I’m making the point that many would see it as ludicrous but it’s your view and you’re entitled to that.
Personally, I’d say they’re different, and we don’t really have any way of judging Alexander-Arnold’s defending fairly since it’s quite clear that we don’t want him to do that much defensive work relatively speaking.
Mate…
That may explain how the RHS of our defence became an open door for the opposition to exploit.
If that was the case I’d be seriously concerned about those overseeing the tactics.
And that would be a really fair question. After all, Salah’s defensive output has also declined in the second half of the season.
If he was such a shit defender then the right side of our defence wouldn’t have become an open door, but would have been an open door for the last 8 seasons.
I’d be cautious even about that because again, different types of players, but also different teams. I’d imagine if you compare any of the players we have played at right-back this season, they’d all have rather different stats from each other.
Im struggling to understand what point you are trying to make here. Those stats show hes comparable with Williams. It seems that the notion Trent can’t defend has to be believed no matter what.
Also add that Gravenberch is reluctant to get over and down there leaves our RB and RCB in awkward situations compared to our left side where Diaz/Gakpo and MACA do a better job.
So this doesn’t show how many minutes they’ve played, nor is it a per minute comparison, so that’s already one flaw.
Secondly, for example, I’d expect Forest to be more defensively involved than we are. It could also be the case that we expect our full-backs to not actively challenge players as much as shepherd them out of the way instead. If that is true, then the stats would flatter Alexander-Arnold, presuming similar number of minutes played. However, if Forest have a lot more possession than we do, the expectation would be reversed. And the question is, who do they have playing ahead of them, etc.
There are quite a few more variables here. I do agree though that it’s pretty much a myth that Alexander-Arnold can’t defend.
Whatever, Slot asks for something different to what Klopp did of our defensive backs. Neither Trent nor Robertson have converted to this new system well. They both liked getting forward and particularly Robertson pressed a lot higher up whilst Trent helped open up defences.
Slot lets Trent do this when we need a goal but generally asks for them to stay deeper. Both work best getting forward.
I understand that everyone sees things differently, but do you honestly think we’re playing to the same level we were earlier in the season?
The curious thing is that Arne explicitly refuted the suggestion in a recent press conference, saying that the metrics showed otherwise.
But it’s something that so many people have commented on you have to wonder if it’s simply the case that other teams have managed to step up a level while we’ve maintained ours instead, since a lot of people have made that observation. Either that observation is wrong, or just inaccurate, e.g. we haven’t been tactically as accurate as before even if we’re doing the same amount of running.
Trent is far from being that bad defensively as he’s often portrayed. Also, it’s clear that certain defensive situations (and no matter how well he’s protected) are a weakness in his game. For me, it’s not a matter of willingness, but more focus and also possibly physically (it can be a demanding role in that aspect). I’m not sure if Trent is able to do that intense up and down role he used to do. Our use of him has changed over the years. There are reasons for it, both his strengths and weaknesses. For example, having re-watched the final in Paris from a bird’s eye view, where he was positioned in a lot of phases as a RWB (and Konate playing more directly against Vini), that doesn’t mean we don’t expect much from him defensively and that he wasn’t part of our condeded goal (as Robbo’s foolish press on Modric, as Valverde’s bit luck with his attempt between a cross and a shot). He plays as a defender most of the time, whether it’s a bit higher, wider, narrower, some principles remain the same. When we defend, he’s a RB. A defender. Under Slot, he’s been brought back more to basics, to help us build up from deep. Slot wants his full backs a bit more narrow, because he likes his wingers more on the outside than Klopp. In short, we gained much more from Trent’s strengths than we suffered from his weaknesses.
From what I’ve seen our midfield have dropped off a notch. Gravenberch particularly seems to have lost the ability to intercept balls as much as he did in the 1st half of the season, looks slower, and misplaced passes a lot more.
Szobozlai hasn’t changed much though teams just leave him to run about in space.
MACA for me has improved but is left with far to much to do for his physical capacities. He is quite slow.
I feel Gravenberch might have been mismanaged. He’s still young and needed to know when he was doing things ‘right’. As it stands he might end up concentrating on things he did poorly. This could end up detrimental to his development.