Definitely and I was aware of recency bias when making that statement. Gerrard, Molby, Alonso…all amazing, but none were pinging incredible balls as regularly as Trent
Us and City have a different attitude towards possession, but we share an ideal that your shape when you lose it is important because that is the difference between being able to win it back quickly vs being cut open and countered with 2 or 3 quick passes. One of the biggest differences with City recently vs the first half the season has been Grealish’s appreciation of that. He is playing his role much better now and not losing it at times they simply arent set up to deal with losing it. The relevance is City wont try things if they’re not in the right attacking shape to quickly transition back into defense, but when they are the ball finds its way to KdB a LOT giving him license to be a bit more adventurous.
Trent would typically have the same sort of licence as a FB. Now he’s getting on the ball in the central areas more often, he’s finding that he’s seeing a much wider variety of situations, many where there is a greater imperative to not give it away. It’s going to be a learning curve, but it’s something he looks to be particularly troubled by so far.
Nope, it’s part of what made/makes them great.
Stevie G, sounds incredible, but seriously underappreciated. Had everything in his locker. What I wouldn’t give for a prime Stevie G in this team right now.
Edited: Imagine a midifield of Souness and Stevie G. Makes me weep just thinking about it.
I can’t think of a single example of him doing what, for example, Henderson did against Tottenham and giving it away cheaply in a central area but currently we have Fabinho, Henderson and Jones all completing around 87-93% of passes but between them have less key passes than Trent does. We need penetration and he’s the only one in our team to provide it. Trying to shackle him so we win the passing seems a bizarre notion. Since he’s moved into midfield his pass completion has shot up over 80% anyway on average (apart from the Nottingham Forest game).
Maybe I’m completely missing it but I can’t remember these obvious or bad giveaways by Trent. He’s been our best player by far over the last few weeks and I certainly wouldn’t want to become more reserved. He is our De Bruyne.
The rest of the team needs to learn how to defend, not slow down our best player because they aren’t up to it.
Somebody has to ‘force’ it - Messi, De Bruyne, Gerrard.
You want the best players taking the risks with the ball or nothing will happen.
For us, it’s Trent. Get him in good positions and he will consistently create chances, nobody else in the team can do what he does. Trent is not a luxury player either, he’s proving to be a solid ball winner in midfield, noticeably more so than some of the other players we’ve used this season.
I’d hate to see what those Liverpool sides would have looked like without Gerrard ‘forcing’ it - certainly wouldn’t have beaten West Ham or Milan