Is Southgate right about Trent?
After another fairly diabolical defensive display from Trent last night, was Southgate right to drop him from the England squad or does the blame lie elsewhere?
Look up a Trent showreel on YouTube and you’ll see endless video clips of wonderful passes and glorious crosses. You won’t see too many of him defending though and there’s a reason for that – Trent isn’t a defender. He’s played at RB since breaking into the first team but Trent’s footballing education was as a midfielder and sometimes, that is very obvious.
When everyone in our squad is fit, Trent relies a lot on the industry of Hendo and the pace of Gomez to allow him to be what he is – a playmaker and even when they’re fit, teams target Trent’s defensive frailties, as we’ve seen when Jack Grealish destroyed him earlier in the season and he was far from the first, or the last this season but without Henderson and Fabinho in midfield and without Gomez beside him, those frailties have been more exposed than ever.
Does that make Southgate right then when it comes to England then? Klopp has tailored his Liverpool system to get the best from the RB but can the England manager be expected to do the same? Does he even have the time on the training pitch to do so? If England progress to the latter stages of the tournament, at some point his team are going to have to defend and clearly Southgate doesn’t trust Trent in that department and to a degree, that’s understandable, especially with his form this season.
Could Klopp have helped?
One thing I’ll say in Trent’s defence is that what Madrid did last night – long balls over the top targeting the right side of our defence, teams have been doing that to us literally since the first game of the season when Leeds stuck three past us in what was another fairly calamitous defensive display from TAA, so could the manager not have found a way to counter that?
It’s been glaringly obvious Trent needs more protection on that side and he’s not going to get it from Salah, who I thought was extremely poor in that department last night. You’re away at Real Madrid, you’re going to have to drop back and help at times, which didn’t really happen.
What’s the solution then? Do we just accept it is what it is until Hendo and Gomez are fit or are they just papering over cracks that are just going to become increasingly visible over time? At the moment, it’s hard to deny the latter as it seems if you play a left winger with pace and any kind of dribbling ability at all, stick a ball over the top down our right hand side and he’ll have Trent on toast all game long. Is it perhaps time we signed a dedicated RB and moved Trent into a De Bruyne style role in midfield? A role that arguably suits his skill set better? Or is it a case of needing to surround him with the right kind of players to do the so called dirty work and allow Trent the freedom to continuously attack?
One thing is for sure, a solution needs to be found because at the moment, teams know how to play against us and perhaps unfairly, Trent is getting a lot of the blame on the back of our poor form.
As it stands I don’t expect him to make the Euros squad and while I’m happy about that on a personal level, I’m sure the player won’t be. What’s the answer then? Personnel beside him? A change of position? Or does Trent just need to accept that the specialist role he plays for Liverpool doesn’t exist at international level and therefore may affect the number of caps he receives? I don’t have the answer. Over to you Kloppo… Walk on!
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