The Guest

They probably look at the team sheet and see that cunt starting right back again and think we are fucked before we’ve even begun. Its not even ‘like’ it’s a goal head start for the opposition, it literally is a goal headstart. Then everyone else is all over the place making mistakes taking risks to try and get back into the game. You take him out of the team and we would instantly improve. We need to start getting 2 players outwide on each side consistently as well. This is absolutely soul destroying watching us get dismantled by everyone other than championship sides all down to a fucking fat headed ego at right back who can’t be arsed learning how to defend.

The idea of putting Trent in midfield is even worse than continuing to leave him at right back. He’s got zero awareness of anything going on around him. He has the minimum requirements on this part at full back. You could say his decision making is shocking but I don’t even think you could call them decisions. He just ball watches in every single situation and either tries to cut the pass out or just runs towards the ball with their second goal being a prime example. Can you imagine that in midfield? Just because he’s good on the ball doesn’t mean he should start somewhere in the team. The fantasy land everyone has been living in for years that he’s a good defender, defending badly etc has everyone thinking he could just transition into midfield but it goes further than that. The fact he hasn’t been able to pick up these basic skills as a full back shows you the clear lack of intelligence he has. The various nuances our midfield play has wouldn’t even scratch the surface of that thick skull. I’m sure it will give the people up his arse another year of defending him though followed by posts like “why are we playing the best full back in the world in midfield” so we can then experience another few years dealing with the transition back. Hopefully this is Klopps Lovren moment with him.

The whole lot of it is on Klopp really. It’s the only real problem I’ve had with him in his whole time here other than the spell when he carried on playing Moreno ahead of Robertson. He seems to have a complete blind spot for Trent and it looks to be the hill he’s willing to die on. The whole coaching set up has indulged him to the point it appears his ego is huge and the effort has completely dropped off. It’s infuriating to watch the laziness in his game and it definitely is laziness because you can see him sprinting seconds or a minute after a lot of these “switch offs” have happened. I agree it’s obviously Klopp telling him or allowing him to go where he wants centrally. The thing that pisses me off even more is the odd time Trent does get to the byline we look really dangerous. I don’t think this 4231 idea is really going to fix anything either and I think if anything it’s going to make it harder for the forward players. I said it a while ago. We need to fundamentally change the way we attack regardless of the formation, It’s so rare that we get 2 players wide on one side together and it a been like that for a while. We just never overlap the man with ball outwide and it kills us. I find it odd that Klopp or Pep haven’t tried to sort this because it’s glaring.

It depends how you define defend. He can physically tackle people, it’s not like he’s a shithouse (unless the ball is in the air and then he more often than not is) and when he’s completely focused he can make good defensive decisions and he tends to cover around the back of the centre backs well on occasion. He is a terrible “defender” though. The problem is that his attitude to it absolutely stinks and it has done for years now. It’s all on his terms and when he fancies it and this can be for whole games or parts of one. Everyone seemed to convince themselves of the “Klopp wants him up the pitch so he’s going to get caught out” excuse to the point I think he started believing it. Nobody ever seemed to want to address the fact that loads of the problems and goals came when he wasn’t even up the pitch or the fact that he rarely gets to the opposition byline even once a game anyway. It started with the just outright stopping as soon as player or the ball went passed him and this was years ago. He’s clearly been told because this doesn’t happen as blatantly now. He covers it with half arsed jogging instead with still no intention of getting in position. I think Carragher spoke a while ago about this and how he never sprints back into position. I think a lot of people would say that he hasn’t got defensive instincts and that’s why he doesn’t do it. I personally think it’s worse than that now. I think he hides from it and it’s a major flaw in his game that basically cannot be improved because if it was going to be it would have happened by now. My biggest fear is that after another year or two of playing like this he is going to get moved into midfield and he’s going to be an even bigger mess there because he would have even more defensive responsibility playing there than he does now. It was pretty much universally accepted that if we wanted to progress the team and compete with city then we needed more from the midfield than the workhorse type we had that covered the full backs. Robbo didn’t need to adapt because he worked up and down anyway and didn’t really need covering. Trent just hasn’t adapted to this shift and it’s glaring in every single game. We got away with it last year because everyone else was playing well. He still cost us in the big moments though. I see everyone coming up with all sorts of reasons for this years slump and the goals conceded etc. I’m convinced that if we just take him out the team we would turn this around and these other players would stop being left exposed so many times. Brighton got in down our right side so many times the goal was almost certain to come. He’s not offering anything going forward anyway and is harming us by not even providing width. The decision to take Tsimikas off and leave him on cost us the game. It feels like even if we win games now it’s going to be through us getting lucky. I find the England stuff baffling. Reece James is a better footballer than him. People will wake up to it at some point. On his current form he shouldn’t be anywhere near the squad. As much of an out of his depth shithouse, picking the wrong players in a daft formation crab Southgate is, he’s called this one absolutely correctly.

It’s still the best podcast. It goes hand in hand with listening to Klopp after a defeat. It helps you get over it. This game and situation has been coming though and not just this season. Looking leggy and the points about pre season are valid but they don’t explain why we’ve been like this for a long time now. We’ve just been getting away with it. It’s not about effort or running or even Mane going because we were having these exact problems last year. Theres a massive problem with how we set up and use the ball when we want to attack. For as long as I can remember we have one man out wide. It tends to be Robbo on the left and Salah on the right. Trent’s too lazy/unfit to go past him or overlap consistently and is clearly being told to either do what he wants or drift inside and it’s absolutely killing Salah. We use to see it a lot last season and it would end up being Mane going wide with Robbo that would open up the game. Last night Trent actually did get to byline twice and it should have led to goals but then we just revert to the same shit that isn’t working. I was worried about Diaz when mane left as good as he is he loves drifting in. I think from the off last night he was trying to stay wide though but then Robbo was just not on it and it’s hard to just make that connection trying to do this for the first time in a game like this, We just don’t create good chances because we don’t stretch teams enough. The Firmino one mentioned is not a good chance. It’s a high ball going on to his left foot. The fact that it was air shot shows how bad he is these days but not many players are scoring that. The whole thing is exacerbated by just how bad and lazy Trent has been. It was obvious to me that any game against a good side last season was going to be a problem because he’s such a weak link defensively. I think on the pod last year you were saying this is a myth but it categorically isn’t. He can put his foot in but defensively he’s absolutely clueless and the way he’s been indulged has hit a critical point. It’s like he’s got a licence not bother and he’s following it up with horrific offensive decisions making as well. The myth for me is that it’s the risk we take because he gets caught up the pitch. I couldn’t care less if he’s got to the byline or someone makes a mistake and he’s deep in their half and they break, that’s not on him. What is on him is the consistent lazy walking around. When he’s in reaching distance of players and just gambles on not following them because he obviously just can’t be arsed. He nearly cost us the palace game standing right by his man and just letting him do what he wanted at the end of the game. You could argue both goals tonight are on him. The first one he’s doing that lazy walk as the ball goes out wide and doesn’t close the man. Then gets one two-d not doing anything at all. At this point it’s classic Trent. The balls gone past me “I’m done” mode. Everyone is focusing on Virg because it’s so odd what he does but go back and look at Trent. He could have come across and stopped Sancho getting that shot off but he can’t be arsed. The half arsed jog he does towards sancho as he’s in the space sums him up. He gets away with it because he’s kept himself out of it instead having defensive instinct and just getting back in. The second one comes from one of the countless aimless smashed balls he tried into the middle of the pitch. How often did we use to talk about the situations where we have to keep the ball in those situations because if we lose it we get exposed so badly. His reaction after hitting the pass again is something nobody seems to pick up on. He just stands there while they’re breaking free. He literally doesn’t move because he can’t be arsed. If you’re going to hit such a low percentage pass when you’ve got 2 or 3 options around you then you’ve got to instantly be heading back to goal because of the likelihood of whats going to happen. He was killing us all night by giving them the ball and leaving the defence exposed. The strange wandering around the pitch he’s started doing this season as well doesn’t seem to be being picked up by anyone either. We’ve had patterns of play drilled into the players that have worked for years but now our centre backs are struggling to pass the ball out at times in the game because Trent is just standing up front and everyone just seems to ignore that it’s happening. I think Gomez hit ones straight out of play at one point because Trent was nowhere to be seen. It’s gone from being a problem against good sides to now hurting us against average and bad ones as well.

You’ve conveniently cut off the 3 or 4 seconds before the ball is played because it doesn’t suit what you are trying to shoehorn in. At that point Robertson is occupied by Ascensio, Kabak is looking at Modric so Phillips shifts across to stop any ball into Benzema. Trent is completely asleep and for some reason is halfway near Mendy which is stupid really because he’s not a threat and if a ball gets played out to him the whole defence could shift across. Just as the ball is played Phillips notices Vinicius and Trent’s laughable positioning. Modric and Ascensio have dropped to look for a pass so it suddenly looks like the defence are only dealing with two attackers which they weren’t. Phillips can’t do anything at any point. If Trent had been in position then Vinicius can’t take that first touch. I can’t believe that Klopp or the coaches won’t have analysed that any club we will play against will hit balls down that channel. It’s the biggest weakness we have and it’s because if Trent and his arrogant lazy Shite defending attitude. That ball doesn’t happen on Robertson’s side because he’s not any of those things. He needs to be spoken to and retrained like a child from the ground up if he’s going to last there long term. Benitez is a knobhead who lived off having Gerrard in his team. Before he fully got his claws into him we were winning trophies. His shithouse behaviour and tactics cost him the league title he deserved. It’s a shame Gerrard didn’t have an attacking manager in his prime because his cabinet would have been bursting. The idolisation of Benitez is fucking laughable in my eyes and the absolute mess he’s created at every club he’s been at since confirms it.

You just haven’t got a clue. He’s the left winger running off the right back into the channel. Trent should be grabbing him, getting in his way and screaming at Phillips to drop because the run is being made. When Kroos has the ball he’s not Phillips problem, Benzema is. He can’t continually keep looking over his shoulder to babysit Trent. There should be more pressure on the ball and that’s on the midfield but he’s Trent’s man and he should be going with him because once again he can see Phillips is unaware of him. Virg never plays on the right side so him playing wouldn’t have changed anything. Gomez and Trent have had very similar problems with that exact ball as did Lovren when he had Trent alongside him. Matip isn’t lightning quick either.

You fucking sad bastard.

Just put him out wide and tell him to stay there. It’s really that easy.

You’re on the internet offering people fights mate. I think you need help.

Brilliant.

Okay see you at 8. Make sure to hang around for a couple of hours as I might be late.

Jesus fucking Christ. How old are you?

Okay then tell me your name and where you live? I’ll head down after work.

Why the fucking hell would I meet you you fucking bell end? You could be Darron Till for all I know and I could be anyone for all you know. It’s a complete empty threat that is never going to be realised yet here you are on the internet offering someone out who for all you know could hand you your arse. Are you mentally unstable?

Trent was always an issue even in that period where we conceded very few goals. Robertson is the perfect example of what Trent should be aiming to be like defensively. They get praised to the heavens when the system works for them and they get assists. When everything isn’t in their favour though it’s highlighting flaws in Trents game. He’s always been a lazy twat when the ball goes past him. It’s weird because in some games he’s absolutely concentrated and he looks good defensively and in others he just switches off and goes back to his norm. Nobody is criticising him for being too high up the pitch or getting caught out of position on a counter attack. Everyone accepts that happens. The thing that pisses me off is his ball watching when the winger runs off him and he starts taking massive risks thinking he can cut out the ball instead of leaving the pressing for the midfield and staying goal side of the attacked until he’s in line with the centre backs. He gets caught out more than any other full back in the league when he’s actually in a decent starting position and it’s all down to his own awareness, attitude and body position. When Klopp goes in a few years time he’s going to be a massive elephant in the room because Klopp is the only manager in world football to play his full backs like this. I can’t see him getting a job in midfield either because his defensive awareness will be even more exposed there.

I feel embarrassed for you.

You’ve posted a still frame of a full match you fucking crank. The funniest thing about it is that it appears to show Salah high up the pitch stopping Madrid building an attack and forcing them to hit a long ball which funnily enough is called pressing you imbecile. Or do you think pressing involves not pressing and following the full back down the line? Hysterical.

Salah put more than a shift in. He was pressing all night. I honestly wonder what game people watch. For the goals we conceded I don’t see how Salah could help Trent other than playing right back for him. He doesn’t follow his man for the first goal and cover his centre back from a long ball. He makes a brain dead header from another long ball and on the third just let’s their left winger drift into an unmarked position while he picks nobody up and doesn’t tell the centre back he’s coming. These were just the goals as well. Never mind the other countless brain dead defensive position and decisions he made all night. It’s basic schoolboy stuff he gets wrong time and time again and it’s baffling that it’s not being addressed.

Who is Trent occupying when Vinicius runs off him? What’s he doing exactly other than just standing there with no other player in sight? He should follow him over because he’s the danger. He can see that Phillips doesn’t know he’s there as well which makes the whole thing worse. Ferdinand broke it down after the game and said the exact same thing I’m saying. At least he should shout to him if he can’t be arsed going with him and he doesn’t even do that. You can see the shock that he’s there when Phillips first sees him. Phillips isn’t even in that bad a position and the shot goes through his legs so he’s fairly unlucky he doesn’t block it.

It was about 13 years ago to be fair and I mixed the two legs of a tie together. Go and watch the replay. He’s Madrid‘s left winger and Trent should be all over him. Phillips is concentrating on the play as he’s the next man if the play spills in front of him. Trent isn’t doing anything other than ball watching. He’s got Phillips in front of him so should just be tight to Vinicius or at least screaming at him that he’s coming. He doesn’t do either.

That goal was almost completely on Trent. You clearly haven’t watched a single replay of it.

He’s clearly not Shite. He was literally our player of the month in March. He has hardly put a foot wrong all season. The midfield didn’t press and didn’t keep the ball and Trent absolutely fucked us with his dickhead defending. Kabak had a pretty good game and was the better of the two but it is what it is.

Robbo looks fucked. He gets left out on the wing on his own constantly. It’s basically ruined any attacking intent we had there. He’s got pace and can beat a man but he’s not going to take the risk of giving it away stupidly so doesn’t do it. When you add that to how shit Mane is centrally I just don’t understand Klopp’s thinking. Get back to basics and get Mane to stay on the touch line and keep things simple running at one man with Robbo overlapping. As soon as Madrid started sitting in to protect the lead you knew we weren’t creating anything because that’s how it’s been most of the season. It’s too intricate and predictable through the middle and we have too many small players for Trents crossing from deep to hurt teams. We need to concentrate on getting to the byline so that it opens up the space for those passes in and around the edge of the box when the opposition defence gets stretched. It just feels like we are hammering a square peg into a round hole any time that situation arises and Klopp just isn’t addressing it. We’ve went from Mane’s starting position being the left and us struggling because he’s spent most of us time centrally to us now just playing him centrally and him looking permanently shit. Trent was an absolute car crash from the first minute. It was his classic arrogant performance where he seems to think he’s too good to do the dirty work or he just hasn’t got the brain to. Going the other way he started hitting those Hollywood balls over the top again and again when they clearly weren’t working. I really hope Klopp and the coaches tear him a new one over that performance because it was a disgrace and all that’s bad about his game. He seems to need to be taught the complete basics about defending because the errors he’s making are so easily fixed. The number one thing being just fucking sprint as fast as you can back towards your own fucking goal.

Utter horseshit.