LOL, such a bunch of sensitive souls on here. How dare I try and get a balance viewpoint post game, only partial view to others....
I only read the highlights of your posts, but I want to be righteously indignant!
Actually, deep breath, let's actually talk about Trent.
Trent is a scouser and at prime age and yet of the three big contracts, people aren't as arsed about his. He got injured yesterday, and I didn't like it a bit, but mostly because now we have only one right back and a mess of games to come. I didn't think "this is an unmitigated disaster" as I would have if it was one of the other two.
So why is that?
It's because Trent isn't as useful a footballer as either of them, but a country mile, in a game that is defined by being physically competitive. Every single right back in world football playing our system would have issues playing how we play vs how Bournemouth do. We have to provide cover to defend counterattacks by rotating midfielders over, and Salah usually ends up attacks one of the most if not the advanced player. If we dont hold possession, it's a real stress test. Honestly, it'd make sense for most teams to sub a right back on 70 given how the game went, just for fresh legs. Yes, he did offer some interesting ideas and more passing range down the right at times. The thing is, it wasn't that sort of game. That's the big context.
So sure, sometimes Trent needs to be uncommitted when there's a man over. I've been very sympathetic for him in this situation with klopp. We were run at repeatedly down that side and it wasn't Trent's fault, but it also repeatedly exposed his weakness.
The thing with Trent is if you watch the people covering for him, who do put the tackle in, they are more energetic, more lethal, and here's, the huge thing, more competitive. If konate doesn't win a duel, it looks like he's tried as hard as fucking possible, and then it looks like he's livid. Its not just his side either, or defenders. If Diaz fucks up, he will go into junk yard dog mode for 10 seconds, even though he isn't really in his preferred postion. If Trent doesn't win a duel, his body language and application, are like, well, someone else will fix this, and then they do, or as with united, they don't. Sometimes vvd is accused of being too casual. He lost a duel in this game and I was flabbergasted. That's the difference. You can be casual if you're great.
Trent has never been a remarkable individual defender, but his heart doesn't seem in it now, and we are in a title run. He's feeling typecast, and we are in a title run. If he was doing his very best all the time and personally invested entirely and focused completely, id be fine with him getting beat. As I said, every right back will against Bournemouth.
Not against united though.
Is he playing like he's trying to win us back two points? Even if he did, you know what that would look like. Raking balls, crosses, and on his day the best in the game. Would it be the burst of applied defending we saw for the first handful of games this season? No.
So no, not a good game from Trent. Not worthy of pillorying him, but that's not happening because of this game.
