Trent: Another midfielder or a unique right back?

An article by Matty

The question that defines this season and perhaps Klopp’s entire new setup: where does Trent fit best? Personally I don’t think the inverted RB is as awful as everyone thinks it is. We’re not losing games because of it, if anything Trent’s forays into midfield have won us quite a few points this season. The defense looks a bit shaky, maybe, but we’ve got the best goal difference in the league and are among the league leaders in least goals conceded. Sure, some of that is because of Alisson but why buy a world class keeper if he’s not gonna be called into action once in a while? For that matter why buy such rapid CBs if they don’t get to show off their pace in tracking down attackers? Why buy anyone if the system is such shit we’ll never win anything with it? Why am I here, what am I doing? Great questions, all of them.

Going back to last season, Arsenal and City introduced the box midfield concept to the Prem. City had John Stones push up into midfield from the CB position, Zinchenko would invert from LB for Arsenal and be the deep playmaker that midfield needed. Seeing as Trent is such a unique footballer, why not accentuate his strengths and mitigate his weaknesses with a new role? A role that allows him to more directly impact the play while relieving him of defensive responsibilities that most people would agree he was awful at? The problem with such an idea is the sacrifices made to accommodate such a role. But fortunately for us we have such special players that accommodation is mostly flawless.

It all starts in goal, with Alisson being the best 1v1 keeper in the world, bar none. You can afford to push the RB up into midfield when you have a keeper who can make a save in every situation consistently. Then we get to the CBs. Virgil has been stellar this season, but it’s the right sided CBs I’d like to focus on, as they’re the ones who have to cover for Trent. Quansah, Konate, and Gomez are all absolutely rapid, among the quickest at their position in the world. If you’re going to leave the right side open in defense, you need someone rapid to cover as much ground as possible. We have the players to do so. Robbo has experience in a back three with Scotland, meaning he can play further back or keep doing what he’s always done and run up and down the wing all day long. We’ve seen Kostas doing that a lot recently, no reason Robbo won’t do the same once he’s back.

In the midfield we’re blessed with both technical ability and incredible defensive work rate. Szoboszlai has been a true box to box player, helping cover Trent while also being very involved in the attack. Mac Allister has been surprisingly decent as a DM, although not spectacular, and Endo’s been growing into the role more and more lately. Jones and Elliott have both been excellent in the defensive and attacking phases. Even Cody Gakpo has had some solid midfield cameos. The point is that we are rather uniquely set up to play Trent in an inverted role because of who he is and who the players are that he has around him. However, because of the sacrifices being made by these players in order to make the system fit, it is possible we lose out on some of their best work.

While I think it’s a bit overblown, and that there’s more to Dom’s recent form than “Trent goes where he wants to go”, some players have been negatively affected by Trent’s new role. Robertson in particular has looked out of sorts at times since the adjustment, Szoboszlai has perhaps been silenced by Trent’s deafening impact on the game. But seeing as this is still a relatively new system, with a lot of new working pieces fitting into it, it’s quite possible we’ll see further adjustments to the system. We’ve seen the LB role become much more attacking over the course of the season. The midfield’s impact on games has been inconsistent but overall we’ve gotten exactly what we bought so far from all the newbies. I suspect they’ll continue to grow in influence as the season progresses.

Recently against low blocks, Trent’s role has come under even more scrutiny than before, seeing as it’s completely pointless to congest the middle of the park against a block of 10 players and a goalie. To this I agree, but also look at the adjustments made in each game. Gomez gave us more of a traditional RB, the LB was buzzing up the left flank all game. We adapted within the game based on what was being presented to us. Again, the unique players we have allow us to do so. Perhaps the adjustments came too late, but at least they happened. We won as a result.

My ultimate answer is thus: the straightforward easy answer would be to throw the system in the gutter, sign a RB, move Trent into midfield to create further competition for places, sign a CB and a DM and go win titles. The system has pros and cons but the cons are glaring enough that it would likely be the best choice to scrap the idea. But if the answer was that simple, surely we’d have done it already. I argue the box midfield gives us unique advantages against a number of teams, we’ve proven uniquely capable of adapting to it, and we have the personnel to play a more traditional formation if the game calls for it. Seeing as this is a development season anyways, with a number of new players still adapting to the talent around them, I’d give it until the end of the season. If a world class RB becomes available, and it’s become proven we cannot win trophies with Trent floating between midfield and defense, then the choice would be fairly obvious to get rid of the system. If the team continue to gel, improve their performances organically, and look better down the stretch? I think it would then deserve another look.