Look at today for example. Yes Doku completed some dribbles, but most times Trent funneled him to the byline or inside and Doku wasn’t really threatening for the most part. Yet the prevailing narrative is that he got destroyed by Doku.
He has actually been decent to good at defending this season yet people say he’s been a horrific defender. I don’t think this is quite true if you watch him play.
I won’t claim that he’s an amazing defender but he’s not a bad one either, he’s just a perfectly average to good defender but the narrative is that he’s a liability. It’s frustrating to see.
he did get absolutely rinsed by ake for the goal.
He got rinsed a bunch of times. Guy is an unbelievable passer of the ball but defending is simply not his strong suit.
Yeah OP conveniently leaving out that Ake just strolled past him like he was a training cone.
I don’t think it is lazy commentary or overblown at all. Trent is amazing going forwards, but he can’t defend for shit
“can’t defend for shit”
These takes sometimes, fuck sake.
Bottom 56% of RB’s for tackles. Bottom 88% of RB’s for clearances. Bottom 88% of RB’s for blocks. Bottom 84% of RB’s for aerial duels won.
Yeah mate, he is a fucking stellar defender isn’t he. LMAO you Liverpool fans cope so hard.
The guy is pretty much 99th percentile of RB’s in all attacking aspects. People recognise that, he is one of the best in the world. But he cannot defend, stop lying to yourselves and just appreciate him for the player that he is.
Trying to feed people false narratives about him being a good, or even decent, premier league defender is simply not true. Nobody believes it either, because it is plain for all to see. Don’t know who you are trying kid, but you are only kidding yourselves.
Liverpool fan here and I totally agree. The man can’t defend. World class ball striker but is not a defender. And I hate the narrative but he’s so good going forward. That would be same thing as saying yes or striker can’t score goals or create but he’s so good at coming back to defend…. Ridiculous
I’m not sure these stats are right , surely it would make more sense if he was in the bottom 8% for some of these stats , like if you said “he’s bottom 10% for ground duals among fullbacks” that would make sense
Same way if you’re talking about attacking stats you want a player to be in a high percentile eg 87th percentile for crossing accuracy
Yeah I worded it differently because this is the internet and I fully expect that a lot of people don’t understand what percentile means. So, instead of saying 44, 11, 11, 16 percentile, I said bottom 88% for example. I should have said either top 88%, or bottom 11%, you are correct.
No worries
Is that tackles or tackle percentage? Because that’s a stat that depends on many things - eg possession. If you have more of the ball then you’re going to have less chances to make tackles. So players on high possession teams will have fewer tackles.
Blocks and clearances are also about play style. We don’t sit deep, so no blocks, and we play possession football, so no clearances.
Aerial duels are absolutely a weakness of Trent. It’s funny that people talk about Vinicius rinsing Trent in the CL final, when in reality Trent won every 1v1. But his poor concentration meant he got beaten by Vinicius at a back post header, so people ignore everything else and jump on the false narrative.
Is Zinchenko a LB to you? Honest question Arsenal fan to Arsenal fan.
Allison caught the whole team by surprise, Van Dijk and Matip also got “rinsed.” It was a good counter attack off a large distribution error. Trent made a lot of big defensive plays today
Alisson made the initial error, then Szoboszlai and TAA got beaten far, far too easily.
Yes, the distribution error made the opportunity in the first place. But Liverpool don’t concede there if Aké doesn’t take two defenders out of the game with a pretty simple sidestep
So we can all agree that Trent wasn’t solely at fault for the goal then lol
yeah i actually was impressed. but 3 players in that sequence could’ve done slightly better and they wouldn’t have conceded
You can say that about any goal in fairness
Yeah but same can be said for any goal. Somebody could have closed down Trent. As an LFC fan, I was just hoping to score and lose by less than 2
true. but i just feel trent needs to do a lot better than letting the defender just glide by him. more than made up for it
No. He gets cooked regularly. He spams more balls than anyone in. Throw enough crosses in box one will go in
I did not see it that way. I felt Doku absolutely ran riot on Liverpool today. It was the final move that just didn’t pan a few times, but the defending against Doku was poor. That being said, Doku has seemed to get the better of almost everybody so far, so it’s not especially bad to hold it against TAA.
Trent never had a problem with defending per se.
His problem has usually been concentration levels and switching off while defending.
When Doku is running at him, Trent is pretty good. But when the ball is cleared and Ake is moving forward, he switched off.
Always been the way.
But apparently Reece James is amazing despite rarely playing and being average when he does.
He had a bad start last season defending. Very bad. But overall he’s just fine. And considering them number he had 2+ seasons ago he as a right back is world class.
Yesterday he could have done better at City’s goal but after that he was really good.
Doku was poor today, Trent struggles against the run in behind. Doku wanted the ball to feet
I feel like his goal, while crucial, kind of hides his defensive performance today which, while not disastrous, was once again not up to par for one of the best teams in the world. He got cooked by doku multiple times, and was fortunate that his teammates followed up well and it never resulted in a goal. Him and szoboszlai are also very lax on letting ake through to assist haaland. He may be improving, but his defending is still poor for a player of his caliber
https://twitter.com/Hennes_4/status/1728541660194156883?t=Y5Lp1L0OXMY2AJsbu51VsQ&s=19
Doku barely got two crosses in and only one was close to anything dangerous.
He got shut down and had to cut back inside almost all the other times
Trent completely shut down Doku, what are you on about? City’s goal was the direct product of Allison slipping and catching his entire team out of position.
He didn’t though. Doku got loads of crosses in and got past him plenty of times. Liverpool just for the most part managed to defend the crosses
Are you high? Doku got a ball into a dangerous area on almost every single take on…
People have dug their heals into what side of the fence their on for this arguement and almost nothing will get them to change their stance.
What people fail to remember is some of the fullbacks they say are great defenders were actually poor defenders in their early 20s. Kyle Walker didn’t start getting praised for his defending till his late 20s.
I watch him every game, and he is actually shockingly bad defensively, but only because he seem to not care enough about it
Doku put in a few crosses which should have been converted to goals. All after skinning Trent.
If these chances had not been wasted by other players the game narrative would have been how Trent is a liability.
So, the way Sky Sports punditry works us that Rodri missing a chance determines whether Trent is a liability.
The pundits don’t do subtlety and nuance. They just pick a lazy narrative.
I think yesterday was one of those times where 2 players directly opposing each other both had good games. Doku created a few chances and dribbled well, while the chances Trent gave up were not detrimental to Liverpool in the end. Plus, Trent contributed to some of the Liverpool’s best attacks, including scoring their only goal. Bottom line, Doku did not destroy Trent, TAA did not pocket Doku.
Why can’t people just accept he’s fantastic attacker and mediocre defender. We’ve seen enough examples of him totally losing his man and conceding goals.
It’s a narrative perpetuated by the media who desperately need something to talk about, and people who need clout on social media.
Everyone knows he’s better going forward than defensively, but sorry, you are not a starting right back for a team that has won every available trophy, made three UCL finals, and had three 90+ point seasons in the Prem, if you “can’t defend”. He’s a lot better defensively than he gets credit for and did well yesterday.
He’s usually solid, sometimes goes missing, same could be said for most. I think he does well considering that he is on the side not being covered by Virg and having to come back from midfield so covering a lot of ground.