A RB is easier to replace than a LB.
I think Owen Beck might be alright as a backup but Tsimikas isn’t someone who we should be relying on as a long term Robbo replacement
There were quite a few matches where Robbo wasn’t upto scratch before.
I love that guy but the decline has set in.
Taken in isolation, Trent’s comments are absolutely ok. He is exceptionnally talented, and has the right to dream big. It’s a bit deluded, and maybe also a bit egotistic to come out with these quotes, but hey, who are we to forbid him to have big dreams?
If only he hadn’t only a few months left on his contract though, eh… that bit is far more annoying…
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I mean, reading the article, it comes from this interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thZzcK5tgyM
He was literally asked about his career goals, I don’t think it’s as outlandish as people are making it sound. It’s not like he made a press release sent to all major press outlets saying he wants the Ballon d’Or.
If you watch that segment, he was given four choices for a career goal:
- Win another Champions League title
- Become Liverpool captain
- Win a trophy for England
- Ballon d’Or
He eliminated becoming Liverpool captain because it’s not in his hands, and of the remaining 3 that’s what he preferred. To me, if you look at the moment when he’s considering the option of “win another Champions League title”, it’s almost as if he’s like, “nah that’s peanuts, we’ll probably do it easy”.
Feels like all the outrage is just manufactured.
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I think Trent is a wonderful footballer who had an absolute shocker yesterday. Is that OK, or do I have to pick a side and dig a trench?
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It feels like the latter when it comes to Trent. Been the same for years. He can’t just have a bad game, this always seem to come with comments on his character, motivation, ego etc.
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That’s just simply wrong. Bradley is captain of my national team. I guarantee I’ve seen more of his games than anyone else here, since he was in NI U21s. I love him but he’s nowhere near Trent’s level, and we shouldn’t be putting that expectation on him
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A lot of that falls at the feet of Gary Neville, who has used his platform to create a narrative around Trent that feels quite personal. Might be something to do with being a Liverpool right back?
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Maybe…
I don’t think he had a shocker yesterday, personally. Had a couple of poor passes and fell asleep once defensively.
On the flip side he was essential to how we flipped the game second half and beat the press, which was killing us in the first half.
Maybe I just didn’t notice the same moments as others did, or maybe its because he’s a target now woth these Ballon d’Or comments but I thought he played fine with a couple of weak moments. The only player out there yesterday who had a shocker was Robbo.
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We were really good until we equalized but sometimes you’ve got to applaud the efforts of the other team. Arsenal had a really, really good 30 minutes. I don’t think it was even about us, they pressed like machines and we couldn’t get through it.
The impressive part was to come out second half, make the adjustments and play past it like we did. We were brilliant yesterday.
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I only saw the second half, but he gave the ball away at least half a dozen times in those 45 mins. Was bailed out by Ibou a couple of times too, but I guess that’s his job.
On the other hand, he created our equaliser.
It was interesting that recently, when asked about what quality he most admires in a teammate, he talked about Salah’s consistency.
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Yes, but one would think that Liverpool fans would be wiser than falling for that.
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Yeah I just see that as a function of his role. He’s the guy who plays those risky passes because he’s good enough to do it. He completed 34/48 passes but that includes 14 long balls, which he only completed 4 of.
I know I’m not pointing out anything new here but it is his job to try those low % long passes that might break a game open. That’s why he ends with 3 key passes. Against a team as good as Arsenal those tough passes are even harder but the second goal shows why he has to keep doing it even if hands possession back to their defenders more often than not.
Martinelli did get away too easily once in the first half and Trent fell asleep late in the game when Jones had ti get around to cover on the back post. Apart from that it was noticeable how quiet Martinelli was. Like you said Ibou deserves praise for his performance too but covering for the spaces Trent leaves while performing his more attack focused duties is part of the job description for the RCB.
This wasn’t vintage Trent or anything, we’re not talking about a brilliant individual performance, but I thought he did fine and was part of a very, very good performance by the team especially second half. I just find the massive exaggeration around him having a “shocker” or a “nightmare” a bit frustrating. Everything has to go right to the extremes thesedays.
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Thanks for providing that context although Id almost say it’s more damning by choosing the last over either a CL or captaincy. He really shouldn’t have answered though - players have lots of media training and know the score - I’d suggest that all these ‘hints’ are designed to communicate that he’s leaving so there is less upset when it’s announced.
For his standards, he played some really sloppy passes in the last few games. Of course, there’s the information from Pearce that he currently carries a small niggle also.
Again, you should watch it. It’s around 9 minutes or so in, look in the video description for the link.
The first option he discussed was the captaincy, which he said technically he’s done for individual games, and more importantly, that it’s not up to him, that’s why he set it aside. That was quite obviously the first one in his mind.
For the Champions League, this is personal interpretation, but the way he set it aside was almost a dismissive, yeah we’ll win another one of these pretty easily, kind of way.
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I’m too busy and important reading and posting on here. Who goes to the original sources anyway
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He faced a very dangerous attacker who has given him fits in the past and kept him pretty quiet. I had to be reminded yesterday evening that Martnelli even played. And in addition his passes created our two goals.
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I didn’t see the game just MoTd highlights. What stood out from that for me was two things.
One Martinelli spent much of the time working closely with Timber to shut down Salah. It was only when Timber started struggling due to fatigue that Salah started isolating him.
Secondly, Robbo’s side was targeted by Arsenal who I think pushed an extra player wide. Mac appeared caught in the middle as to who to pick up leaving the left side of defence a bit more exposed than usual.
One of the things I am looking forward to seeing is how Arne does against teams second time around, because he strikes me as the sort of coach who will learn from his encounters and develop effective plans to counter them if faced again.
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