If he didn’t know before the game started the best RB in the world should have know after 2nd or 3rd touch by Vinicius that this opponent needs to be defended better.
Unmitigated disaster. Directly implicated in all of their goals. He always had issues defending but he had never been exposed as badly and as frequently as he has been this season. Vinicius had 3 goals all season before he came up against him and Phillips.
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Only one and that was because he was trying to get to something and then couldn’t control it. There are times the RB has to pass the man onto the RCB, we don’t go man to man.
So fucking disgusting.
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Agree he was terrible last night but in his defence he looks better when the midfield is functioning effectively. He can get forward more and not worry so much about being caught out. Last night the midfield was absymal, even Fabinho and especially first half. No pressure on the ball, no cover, constantly giving the ball away under no pressure. Add to that we are playing a high line with a CB that has no pace and it’s a recipe for disaster.
I can forgive the occasional defensive lapse from him normally because he’s the most creative player on the team but this season he has been generally woeful, both defensively and offensively. Every now and then we get a glimpse of what he’s capable of ( like against Arsenal) but it’s a rarity. One of the many who are just nowhere near their normal level. Huge drop-offs for so many players this season and Trent is a prime example.
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Carra explained it well, his position is often good, but it lacks more active and better defending towards his player. It may not be in his nature, but as long as he plays in defence, he should work on it. Be more aggressive, but in a clean way. Don’t just stand straight and try to block a cross. Don’t just raise a foot, make yourself big and turn our arse towards the ball. More active defending. Not always rely on reading the move and being at the right place. His temperament also needs a little cooling when it’s a big occasion. Surely, that’s also part of who he is and what got him in this position. He’s 22 and will get more mature with time. I hope he doesn’t get dragged too much in this England thing. Put your head down, focus on the basics and I still believe he might be in the England squad.
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Great defence of Trent but the irony is he’s a much better defender than is acknowledged;
Trippier isn’t good at defending. Reece James has to play as a Wing back with a back 3 and is still regularly exposed. AWB is great 1 on 1 and does lots of match of the day friendly last ditch slides and blocks but isn’t actually all that good at keeping a disciplined shape, tactical reading of the game and makes errors. I’m not convinced they are better at all aspects of defending and certainly not significantly better.
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I was thinking about how he is at times well positionned then imo lets himself down by not closing the wide player down quickly enough when the wide player recieves the ball. Is that in the same line of thought?
He might have good reason to do that depending on what extra cover the midfield is offering but it just seems strange to me leaving a wide player with so much time.
Yeah. I think he got away from criticism quite a few times when he was in a good position, but it lacked more active defending, more closing down, not just cover the line of pass/cross, but do something more about it. It’s almost like we got fed up of listening about his defensively play and ever since he put Sane in his pocket at Anfield in the CL, he’s defensively brilliant. He’s not poor, but there’s definitely room for improvement there as long as he plays in defence. Protected better or worse, you still need to do your own defending better at times, even though I understand it’s not in his nature. But many defenders didn’t start out as defenders. Especially someone as gifted as him.
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I think he’s improved his defending, especially his one on one defending, but he still has moments where he displays a lack of defensive instinct. You see that by him getting into the right position and then not reacting, or getting back to cover properly and then acting like his job was done.
On balance, I’m still comfortable calling him the best RB in the world, but he is definitely someone who benefits from the protection of playing alongside players as good as Gomez or Matip so that ordinarily we get to focus far more on the benefits he brings to a team when we’ve got the ball.
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Yep and it’s all completly blown out of propotion this seasn because he hasn’t got Gomez or Matip cleaning up after him as you say. He also has a lot less protection than Robbo gets as Salah is usually asked to stay higher up the pitch.
That’s not a slight on him, its just his natural game.
My only criticism of Trent is he is far too emotional, he lets the pressure get to him a lot. He did it with Vinicius and got trapped into reacting to him a few times which just all looked like his head went.
This affects his game far too much, especially when he lets it affect his decision making, goes into Stevie G mode and starts crossing all the time chasing the assist. Needs to try and keep his cool, whilst retaining that fight/desire.
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He’s one of the best, for sure.
But I don’t usually give much importance to these sort of sentences. If he’s not the very best for someone else’s context/opinion, I’m fine with it. But he’s in the conversation (maybe less this season) and that’s enough for me.
There are different RB’s in the game and different ways in which different teams use their RB’s.
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His positioning needs to be in relation to the player he is playing against i.e with the inverted winger he needs to learn to show them the line and Visa versa with a traditional winger. The other thing he needs to stop, is ball watching and to be aware where his opposing player is and to track their runs whether inside or outside, which he did a lot better against Villa.
Watching both Trent & Robbo, they both are slow getting out to close the cross down, so I am unsure if this is part of our defensive shape, which I don’t really necessarily agree with
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It has to be fatigue as I’ve heard Klopp and others clearly say the key to stopping chances is blocking crosses and getting out early to close players down.
That’s true of any player though…
But we never have gotten out quick to defend crosses
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Interesting. I have tended to stay away from pre match and post match coverage this season, for obvious reasons. Klopp also said, admittedly a while back when VVD and Matip were regularly available, that they would allow the space out wide as we wanted crosses to be played in. Given that was our system for a long, long time and the vast majority of our players were coached in that manner for ages it might very well be a return to default on some occasions especially as, for all his limitations, Nat does by and large dominate the aerial battles in the box.
I think we might be conflating two issues. A lot of defending is thinking through how you’d prefer to be beaten. When given a choice, always make the attacker the option that puts them further away from scoring. So, get beaten down the outside rather than the inside. Think about the situation against Spurs a few years ago where Virgil was defending a 2 on 1 with Sissoko and Son, and everything Virgil did was about preventing him slipping the ball to Son, even if it meant Sissoko getting a shot off.
So, if there is room to be beaten by a ball over the top, you prefer it to be to the corner than down the middle, like the one Kroos hit last week, so positions yourself accordingly. However, once the ball is out in a crossing position, as long as you have players in position to deal with the cross, it is important to go and get pressure on the ball. The priority is making sure you have numbers to deal with the cross first, then once you do you release players to go and put pressure on the ball.
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