I think it’s much too simplistic to look at Trent as a right back who left, and to suggest that to replace him, we needed a world class right back.
First RB was Trent’s starting position, but it is clear that he wasn’t really playing as a traditional right back. He often popped up in midfield and higher, even when he wasn’t officially ‘inverting’. Fans criticised his defending, and to be fair it was really poor at times, but that wasn’t really his job and he was given licence to focus more on attacking.
There isn’t another Trent Alexander-Arnold you can buy to plug into the right back role. So you have to solve the issue elsewhere.
So forget about the position. Trent’s replacement is Florian Wirtz. He is the player that slot has brought in to bring the creativity to the team that has disappeared with Trent. Trent was often described as Kev de Bruyne, but playing at full back. We’ve bought a Kev de Bruyne, but playing in Kev de Bruyne’s actual position.
Bradley is nowhere near the creative force that Trent was, but he is a much better defender, and has a lot more energy to play as a traditional full back. What he is replacing isn’t Trent, because Trent was rarely there to need replacing. What Bradley replaces is whichever poor midfielder need to drop in to cover Trent.
What I’m trying to say is that this isn’t just about personnel underperforming, although that doesn’t help. This is a complete shift in playing style that it’s going to take time to get to grips with, because for nearly a decade we’ve been playing with a Unicorn at right back. That kind of generational passing ability and creativity isn’t found in Right Backs, so we’re having to get used to doing what every team in the world has to do, and balance a midfield between creativity and robustness and have full backs who do normal fullback things.
Agree with a lot of that, but Bradley is not a much better defender than Trent.
We haven’t locked up that right hand side since Trent was sold, it looks as porous as ever, if not worse.
Bradley and Frimpong are simply much, much lesser players than Trent overall. Better defenders? Marginally, perhaps. But the game isn’t just about defending. We’re worse off there, no doubt about it.
We were never going to replace Trent like for like, but we could’ve had better. Munhoz, for example, is an excellent player, a lot better than the one we bought.
I don’t want it to sound like a hatchet job on Frimpong but this is what I replied to @ZinedineBiscan after he had opened his thread in Rumour Mill:
I couldn’t then and still can’t escape the feeling that he was brought in mainly because of his homegrown status. He has amazing pace, seems like a good dribbler and a decent crosser (in addition to seemingly being a great lad) but his defensive game relies on him getting back quickly and chasing down the opponent who already has a few yards on him - and the ball at his feet. There’s no right-sided centre back playing in a back three to cover for his attacking runs and there’s also Salah getting in his way now, basically nullifying his attacking game.
I wouldn’t call his signing baffling but he looked such a poor fit to me that I literally wrote my LFC-supporting friends that I didn’t expect Liverpool to be interested in him, let alone sign him. Sigh…
As for Bradley, I like him so much when he’s fit but I get the feeling that he has two modes of which only one can be engaged before the game starts. One is “thine man shall not pass” and the other is “thou shalt attack the box at all times”. I actually thought, fitness permitting, he would shine this season because Slot wouldn’t have to accommodate both Trent and Salah on the right but we are looking much less than the sum of our parts at the moment, so whenever any of our players does something bad, it looks ten time worse.
For me, and I said it whilst Trent was at RB, the issue on our right is Mo!
Our RB constantly has a 2 v 1 situation with the overlapping opposition fullback assisting their LF.
It has been an issue we were prepared to live with as Mo was producing at the other end, now with his dip in form or age it is an even greater weakness as the oppostion full back has less fear of pushing forward even more.
I maybe one of the only ones on here, apart from daglish, who would look at dropping Mo, not for his attacking output atm but for his defending, it is hurting us.
This is not just out wide but also our midfielders who have to do increased running and covering to assist our RB defensively and then leaving gaps centrally.
It’s not always the same because very few teams so far wanted to leave Salah on their own against 1 defender. We just didn’t see opposition’s two wide players on their left go and attack Trent alone (that would mean by default that something is not working, even if not all players can be protected at all times, individual defending is always present). The opposition also has things to consider and yeah, what Cucurella said post-match the other day, they were ones who possibly looked at our whole right side of the team at this moment as the weak link.
Football is more than just 1v1’s or 2v1’s. Under Klopp and specifically since the second part of 18/19 (when Hendo convinced Klopp to move him to RCM #8), he was the one who mostly protected that zone, let’s say in “between” Trent and Mo. Konate used to do a lot of covering down his side (possibly why Real might want him or a new physical type of RCB to be long term alongside Huijsen). Last season, we protected it a lot with Gravenberch and Szoboszlai.
The dynamic was interesting and sensitive, because we had an unusual RB and an unusual RW. But that’s not only in a bad way, because they were damn good! We got much more success from it than we suffered. But it’s probably in human nature to be more afraid of the negative, etc.
We didn’t do something incredibly stupid this summer, although there were and still are quite a few questions exactly how will this work. The selection of full backs, Wirtz, buying two strikers for a lot of money with big questions whether both of them can start regularly, keeping Salah.
I still want to see this team getting back to being more compact and press better when without the ball, defend better when we’re in defensive transition and have to defend a bit deeper, defend (and attack!) set-pieces better. The right side issue is just a part of the general balance.
There is a lot there. I’d suggest carrying Mo and Alexis make this list unachievable. Both should be dropped then a midfield of Grav, Dom and Flo with Chiesa, Isak and Hugo or a diamond midfield with Grav, Dom, Curtis and Flo and Isak and Hugo up top. Cody from the bench and then Alexis and Mo can be reintroduced, initially as subs, once the team seems more coherent.
I’m open to a new formation, midfield diamond, Wirtz at the tip, Isak and Ekitike up top.
Salah on the bench, but if he is good enough to displace either of Isak or Ekitike, bring it on. As it happens there will be plenty of action for all three in that set up, and the best two should play, based on form and fitness, not name.
It is pretty clear that Mo is no longer elite on the wing. Few fullbacks are troubled by him these days. He will still get goals and assists as he remains a good player, but I would get him closer to the goal in a front two.
The formation would use the players we have right now much better, and the balance between defence and attack will improve too, imo.
We are playing a system that demands elite wingers, and we don’t have that, on either side. It is time for a new thing to emerge, and Salah must fit to that, not the other way around, which is how it has seemed to me so far this season.
