In the build-up phase, I think we tried to copy the structure City are now playing. Especially second half. I see that against top opponents, we often try to play Konate more against the opponent’s left sided forward. Rather than Trent. But then, there are phases in the game when we can’t avoid those players going up against Trent. I don’t know, he’s been too comfortable in my opinion. Need to see him more like after the Xhaka incident.
Came here to post exactly this.
He basically played midfield today. He was brilliant. The only black mark against him is his defending. So don’t make him bloody defend.
I don’t think top four is gone, but if Klopp thinks it is, we might as well start using the lad in midfield, where he clearly wants to be, in perpetration for next year.
Alisson
Gomez Konate Van Dijk Robbo
Fabinho
Trent Thiago
Salah Nunez Diaz
Gomez Konate Van Dijk Robbo
Fabinho
Trent Thiago
Salah Nunez Diaz
No-one is telling me that isn’t a fucking good team.
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Its a decent side at best which would still finish outside top 4, Gomez cant be trusted to defend either and enough with Fab.
Better than Trent.
Who are you playing at six? I’d have Bajcetic in there, but he is done for the season.
There is no role in this side that can accommodate a player who does not or cannot defend. What this game showed today is how much more effective this side is defensively when we can get pressure on the ball so that we’re doing most of our defending in their half. Trent is specifically diminished from having to defend deeper and as part of a back 4, but all of them are so the overall solution is finding a way to get that effective pressure on the ball and play in their half. You dont achieve that by putting someone in midfield who you give no defensive responsibility to.
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This is the crux of the argument Carra made the other week. If we cannot get back to being a side that dominates games with high pressure then the FB, no matter who he is, is going to have to do a more traditional defensive job where you’re holding a line, having to make decisions about whether to go with a runner or play him offside, track runners going off your shoulder. That is not Trent, and you see his decision making limitations in that situation on their second goal.
If we can get back to the team that dominates game then that puts both FBs doing most of their defending 40 yards higher up the pitch. Importantly for Trent as well, it means he is defending almost exclusive the way he’s facing…stepping up to the ball. He has excelled there on both sides of the ball over the past 5+ years, and won several balls back in the second half today in exactly that situation. That’s the key to getting him back in form - getting the side back to one that dominates games so his strengths as a FB in the side are emphasized, not trying to find him a new role in the side.
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Mental take, you’re basically replacing Salah in the side for him with that. When does our center midfield get to not defend?
How’s about we stop trying to reinvent football using Trent as a rightback come center forward come center midfielder… His heads pickled because we’re asking him to try and do about 10 jobs for the team. Screams of Pep Lijnders trying to be too clever for his own good.
Get him in the pocket deep to cross, or get him overlapping. Let him go up and down the flank with Konate sweeping behind him and a proper no.6 getting out to cover.
It’s not about Trent not defending, just not being the last line of defence in this current side. It’s not doing anyone any favours.
Today, Trent showed real quality from central positions as well as out wide. Whichever way you cut it, he’s far more dangerous in attacking positons than Henderson or Elliot.
I’m not having the idea that playing him further forward nullifies everything he is good at, it doesn’t at all.
This team isn’t capable of pinning opposition sides back so well that Trent can get in those positions from full back. What worked previously isn’t going to work with this batch of players.
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No, I’m putting him in Hendo’s position.
And of course he will have defensive duties. What he won’t face is pacy wingers exposing him one on one.
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Jota at LCB doesn’t seem sustainable
Look at Jota’s average position. 
That’s what happens when we can’t get out of the press on that side and there’s no Thiago to help.
I’m convinced Trent read this forum at HT, @jabu and I were having a little discussion about Trent and what we talked about happened in the first half but after having a read on here a completely different Trent came out for the second half.
Brilliant second half Trent 
i think he threw a stropp after Hnedo had a go at him today and said fuck you,
i’lll show you…
And after his coming together with Xhaka…he also asked the fans to ramp it up…
Gary Neville: “When the Anfield crowd is sleeping, don’t wake them up. Leave them be.
Xhaka woke the crowd up.” [Sky]
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It’s good on paper - and it might be good next season, provided everyone’s fit and firing - but I really don’t trust Gomez, Fabinho and Thiago anymore, for different reasons.
If we’re going to keep Trent in the middle (or whatever the hell he was playing today - I swear I’m not sure that even the bald master tinkerer ever made such a tactical decision), I think we’ll need a much more mobile DM and a bit more balanced RB. Unless Klopp gives in to the trend that Guardiola and Arteta are currently following, i.e. playing centre backs there…
Anyway, Trent should play whichever position gets the best out of him, while helping get the best out of the team. It used to be right back until the wheels came off. If it’s the midfield now, then so be it. It was his position in the youth teams, so maybe he’ll be back to his best there. He’s used to playing under pressure, albeit in a different area of the pitch.
As an aside, beg Bellingham to come, use the Mount money to buy a defensive midfielder, hope that one of the kids will come good at right back, even if it means playing Gomez there for a while… Yeah, I know it’s not that simple and that I shouldn’t be this optimistic.
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He was definitely more inside as the right sided double-six in the build up phase. Before, we used to play him more inside, he would sometimes be part of a deeper trio, almost like a RCB and Robbo playing higher on his side. Klopp said post-match today that it’s not the first time we did something with Trent more on the inside, but that it was structurally more obvious today. There was no mistake where he was positioned, especially as the game went on and we could show more of that.
When Southgate tried Trent in midfield in one game against Andorra, he played RCM in a 4-3-3. Klopp then said in the first press conference after that international break that he found that a bit weird and if Trent would be an option in midfield, he sees him more as a #6 (but perhaps exactly double-pivot, like this structure is). City are doing it even more this season, Arsenal have done it a lot with Zinchenko this season, now we might be doing it more. Interesting stuff.
Trent talks a little more about it here, on 14:13:
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Well perhaps Gomez at fullback and TAA and Thiago at midfield could be the answer for the rest of the season, who knows …
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