Absolutely.
He would be nowhere near the Premier League or possibly championship based on his defensive abilities.
The shocking decline of Trent Alexander Arnold
- Thread starter lysglimt
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He would be nowhere near the Premier League or possibly championship based on his defensive abilities.
Best thread I ever started - and the most accurate 
Best pair of shoes I've seen in professional football for a long time. Becks would have been proud.
He is another one of these English lads that will never fulfill their potential because they are told they have it all at such a young age.
He was given MOTM today after getting skinned and struggling to defend Doku, but he scored a goal, so he is sensational.
He won’t ever be better than he is now. It will be the same story for the likes of Rashford, James etc…
Built up and big headed far too young by the English media, suddenly adverse to coaching and believe their own hype.
Rashford is 26 and Trent is 25. Are they any better than they were 5 years ago? I don’t think they are.
He was given MOTM today after getting skinned and struggling to defend Doku, but he scored a goal, so he is sensational.
He won’t ever be better than he is now. It will be the same story for the likes of Rashford, James etc…
Built up and big headed far too young by the English media, suddenly adverse to coaching and believe their own hype.
Rashford is 26 and Trent is 25. Are they any better than they were 5 years ago? I don’t think they are.
Fully agree with you.
The way GNev pronounces "pool" in Liverpool is pretty damn annoying, but his slobbering over Trent today was unreal.
Doku certainly had the better of him, although I do wonder if for all Doku's quick feet, that he's not a faster version of Anthony playing in a much better team.
He comes inside about 98% of the time, usually to no effect.
Obviously that's still 2% less than Anthony!
Doku certainly had the better of him, although I do wonder if for all Doku's quick feet, that he's not a faster version of Anthony playing in a much better team.
He comes inside about 98% of the time, usually to no effect.
Obviously that's still 2% less than Anthony!
Bit of a weird post after a good performance against the best team in Europe. How good is he supposed to get? His peak is as good as any right back England has produced. Maintaining that level would be an achievement, he dipped below that for 6 months or so last year, but mostly he has.
He’s as good an attacking right back as there is itw at the moment but isn’t a right back also supposed to excel at defending, certainly one that idiots like Gary Neville are calling the best of all time.
"He's not just any RB. He's THE RB" - Gaz Nev.
Because this is exactly what happens, overwhelming praise and an MOTM award for a game in which he was caught out on numerous occasions by Doku.
He is well down the list of England RBs in terms of defending, and that could have been worked on earlier in his career, but ‘Trent’, as they all know him, was bigged-up to dizzying heights from an early age and that aspect of his game was never improved.
He is the same player he was when he first got into the Liverpool team, and that is sad, because some form of humility, and the desire to work on his defending, could have made him formidable.
Same case with Rashford, he hasn’t pushed on by any metric. Same poor decisions, same limitations in his technique and touch.
They get by on their gifts, but they never work on the rest of their game and never become the players they could have been.
He's a much better player than when he first got into the team. I don't see the comparison with Rashford tbh. Trent has had decisive moments in two Champions League semi-finals and won the league, Rashford has never played in one.
Throughout his time at Liverpool he's pretty much topped the touches, passes stats like a centre midfielder, he's been absolutely key to Klopp's team throughout this successful spell for Liverpool.
Bit sensationalist but to be fair Gary Neville knows a bit more about being an elite right-back than me or you.
You would think so but it doesn’t always come across that way. Had he said TAA has the ability to become the best attacking rb of all time you’d say fair enough, it’s not a totally unreasonable statement. But, despite the position becoming much more attacking, a right back needs to excel at defending, Trent is exceptionally weak at 50% of his job, he can’t even get in the England team so to suggest he is one of the best ever is totally ludicrous
The question is does a more defensively sound defender help Liverpool more than the current iteration of Trent?
Feel you're a bit harsh here.
He's one of the first names on the team sheet of a far better manager than Southgate. Starting for England under Southgate is a not much of a barometer of quality. I mean have you heard about Maguire's win percentage?
I think the full quote he said 'potential to be'... yeah it's an odd one. He's a hard player to pin down. England are blessed with so many great right-backs at the same time, Kyle Walker's performances last season against the two best left wingers in the world - Vinicius and Mbappé - Trent just couldn't do. He was so fast and strong he just ran them down every time, was quite amazing to watch. Mbappé said Walker is the toughest opponent he's faced, which is quite the compliment. But then Walker couldn't be trusted to create in the way Trent does, in fact England's lack of creativity at times in big games you wonder if Trent had played might have given England the edge in certain games. Both would start for almost any other nation in the world.
Walker is the best RB in the world 1 vs 1, I think Wan Bissaka is close but Walker just edges it with his sheer athleticism.
The question is when it’s all said and done where will Walker be rated on a list of all time great RBs, if we’re going on defensive ability mostly one on one defending he should be right up there.
Weird timing for a bump.
Trent had a great game today and have been constantly improving in his "new role" after being moved more towards the centre of the pitch.
It's not like he is the best defender ever when parking the bus but that's not his main role either.
Liverpool have been giving up space behind Trent on purpose for 5-6 years straight and are doing fine with being constantly attacked on that side, with Trent starting his defensive duties 10-20 metres "out of position" when other teams wins possession.
That should honestly tell people something. If it doesn't, fingers should be pointed at Klopp and not Trent.
Trent had a great game today and have been constantly improving in his "new role" after being moved more towards the centre of the pitch.
It's not like he is the best defender ever when parking the bus but that's not his main role either.
Liverpool have been giving up space behind Trent on purpose for 5-6 years straight and are doing fine with being constantly attacked on that side, with Trent starting his defensive duties 10-20 metres "out of position" when other teams wins possession.
That should honestly tell people something. If it doesn't, fingers should be pointed at Klopp and not Trent.
Solid ball player too. Maybe the best recovery pace of any defender ever.
I think Reece James had the potential to be as good but the injuries just seem to be stopping that now.
Agreed. And then his sheer pace also allows City to stand higher up the pitch. Nobody takes him in a longer foot race. Rashford tried with a good head start, lost badly and never tried again.
I’d argue Walker is more influential for Ciry than TAA is for Liverpool if you look beyond stats. He stretches their attack going forward (less so lately, arguably), is a presence in the box, and his defending one on one is world class, and then there is the recovery speed.
He’s important in attack and defense. TAA is a massive liability in defense.
Can’t think of anyone with a higher top speed. Even more so than Carlos. Valencia close maybe? Rio in his prime?
Ashley Cole was faster (I think)
Smack on. The media love to build up above average English players as the next Messi, Ronaldo etc, but Kane apart they are nowhere near WC. Bellingham is having a run a it now and in a decent RM team stands out. Lets see if it lasts.
I can’t agree with last statement, because Walker doesn’t have a great impact in attack, Trent playmakes, he passes, he provides the outball as he did for Salah many times today and he can score, via free kick or in open play.
He also takes the set pieces, Walkers impact on the ball isn’t close at all.
I think the massive liability in defence also gets overplayed, because in the best seasons it hasn’t really affected Liverpool, surely him being a massive liability in defence wouldn’t amount to Liverpool having top two defences in the league unless the other players are just that good?
I would say both him and Walker are important to their teams in near equal measure, City literally wouldn’t be able to play the way they do if they didn’t have Walkers pace and 1 on 1 defending and I think this even more so in the past when they used to have Cancelo on the other side and not play with inverted CB/DMs or have 3 Cbs in the back three.
I think both Klopp and Pep have actually maybe sought to lessen that influence indirectly as I feel this season both are probably at their less influential iterations if that makes sense.
In my opinion it heavily depends on the defensive midfielders ability to cover some of the ground in the same spaces as Trent does (as well as Koanté improving as a hybrid between RB and CB).
With Caicedo as a defensive midfielder no, with Mac Allister? Meh, I'm leaning towards yes.
No way Walker is a good bit faster, and more powerful he runs like a top sprinter, he actually probably could be a decent level sprinter if he took it serious around the same times he started playing regular academy football.
Trent James Walker Bellingham Kane are all world class and they’ve proved this at the highest level(ok maybe not Bellingham but it’s obvious).
Alphonso Davies at Bayern might beat him for pace, but not sure he's as good a defender. To be fair Walker wasn't always a good defender, got better at it as he got older. Was a time when he was considered a liability too, but last 3-4 years he's been rock solid.
Luis Perea, played RB and CB for Atletico, easily outpaced most players in La Liga at the time.
There is no world in which TAA is world class ffs.
If it was a pure sprint (as in the player running past him wasn’t needing to dribble) I think Mbappe, Davies for sure are faster. Still Walker is quite old now so props to him. Valencia peak speed I think was fastest in the league that featured a younger Walker but no idea what that speed was.
This was from last World Cup for top speeds, our old boy Dan James is in there. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1351058/fastest-players-qatar-world-cup/
The rumors of TAA's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
I found it funny that Neville as a right back himself didn’t call out Trent’s shocking attempt at trying to stop Ake for the Haaland goal. He would have called out Wan Bissaka or Dalot though.
In the world where he’s played 3 Cl finals at 25, PFA Team of The Year couple times and won the league and CL has one of Liverpool’s 3-4 most important players he definitely is.
You don’t need to be flawless limitations wise to be world class, Marcelo was a world class LB for most of his time at Madrid and had similar limitations, TAA is a positive to the Liverpool team which is the most important thing.
Marcelo was much more aggressive in the challenge and tenacious as a defender than Trent is, and he was a much, much better footballer.
Trent is cocky and lazy and it holds him back from being the footballer he could have been. I will be very interested to see how he does once Klopp is gone, and I suspect it won’t be well.
He has a world class passing range, but he is nowhere near being a world class fullback. Hearing that from such an early age hasn’t helped him.
Klopp should have moved him into his midfield 3 ages ago-then he might be considered.
I think his game unravelled a bit last season, especially defensively. He recovered a fair bit towards the end of the season, but don't think he's as influential as he used to be this season either, nor as good defensively.
Yes, he was never top of his class defensively, but he was alright.
Yes, he was never top of his class defensively, but he was alright.
A faster Antony would be a dangerous player.
Is that what constitutes a dribble past? Christ, I reckon even I could rack up some "dribble pasts" in the PL...
I thought it meant beating a man cleanly and leaving him in the dust, not turning backwards and running away from him.
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I thought it meant beating a man cleanly and leaving him in the dust, not turning backwards and running away from him.
Hybrid of Koné and Kanté