I really feel for Trent sometimes. He is a player who has a high football IQ that he plays right back, wing back, right central midfield and has to tuck in as an auxillary midfielder when applicable. He plays all these positions in every game and most people still expect him to run back and cover for himself regardless of some structural issues on how we are currently set up. It is not that Trent is being lazy but his expectation is there is cover behind him when he goes attack.
Injuries
The biggest issue killing us at the moment is having few options in midfield to rotate players. Fabinho is absolutely shot. He cannot get some rest since he is the only one who can play that role with Hendo gone. You only need to look at Fabinho off the ball. He is struggling to keep up at the intensity and at times is deffering defending to Matip and VVD. Keita and Jones are very good utility players to have as they can play both the RCM and LCM to a level where structurally we are sound. What we are seeing is no different to the 20/21 season where because of deficiencies in key positions, we were left exposed for not covering them. We just lack the functional midfield structure and teams are capitalizing. I firmly believe when injuries in midfield clear up, you will see a very different Liverpool. I guess the only rebuttal was we went into a season hoping Thiago, Keita, Jones, Henderson and Ox will stay fit is this very tight schedule.
Defending
The key to Liverpool defending is how well we close out passing lanes upfront and win the ball via pressing. We are struggling on the right side where Elliot lacks the engine to cover Trent and he does not win the ball off the opposition players high up the field as expected (see Thiago). Once you beat our press, you have the freedom to make VVD and any defender left behind look stupid. Part of our defending is a functional midfield that works by fluid rotations to cover gaps where wide players have left space. Whatever you may think of Keita, he is one of the few players who is so good at positioning himself in the right areas of the press and winning the ball up high. Even the much maligned Henderson, always ensures we have structure and shape in our press.
In summary, criticizing Trent in terms of effort is fair in some instances during the game where he just shows no desire to get the ball. However to expect him to execute all these attacking roles effectively whilst covering himself without help from Elliot/RCM is expecting too much. If we are not carefull we will run him to the ground.
Injuries
The biggest issue killing us at the moment is having few options in midfield to rotate players. Fabinho is absolutely shot. He cannot get some rest since he is the only one who can play that role with Hendo gone. You only need to look at Fabinho off the ball. He is struggling to keep up at the intensity and at times is deffering defending to Matip and VVD. Keita and Jones are very good utility players to have as they can play both the RCM and LCM to a level where structurally we are sound. What we are seeing is no different to the 20/21 season where because of deficiencies in key positions, we were left exposed for not covering them. We just lack the functional midfield structure and teams are capitalizing. I firmly believe when injuries in midfield clear up, you will see a very different Liverpool. I guess the only rebuttal was we went into a season hoping Thiago, Keita, Jones, Henderson and Ox will stay fit is this very tight schedule.
Defending
The key to Liverpool defending is how well we close out passing lanes upfront and win the ball via pressing. We are struggling on the right side where Elliot lacks the engine to cover Trent and he does not win the ball off the opposition players high up the field as expected (see Thiago). Once you beat our press, you have the freedom to make VVD and any defender left behind look stupid. Part of our defending is a functional midfield that works by fluid rotations to cover gaps where wide players have left space. Whatever you may think of Keita, he is one of the few players who is so good at positioning himself in the right areas of the press and winning the ball up high. Even the much maligned Henderson, always ensures we have structure and shape in our press.
In summary, criticizing Trent in terms of effort is fair in some instances during the game where he just shows no desire to get the ball. However to expect him to execute all these attacking roles effectively whilst covering himself without help from Elliot/RCM is expecting too much. If we are not carefull we will run him to the ground.
