BBC poll from last year for who would take the mantle from Messi and Ronaldo as the standalone best player in world football into the next decade:
The shocking decline of Trent Alexander Arnold
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Which is not the level of Cafu, Lahm or Maldini and at the time it was probably a fair assessment (it's not like there's any all-time great right backs playing at the moment).
BBC poll from last year for who would take the mantle from Messi and Ronaldo as the standalone best player in world football into the next decade:
we all know Liverpool fans love a good poll.
He can be an outstanding player when on song but he's heavily reliant on a good system built around him and an excellent CB covering his obvious defensive frailties, which isn't necessariy a stick to beat him with, there's plenty of good system players. I don't think he's England's greatest ever right back and I don't think he's one of the best right backs ever, either.
He's usually fine going forwards but, unfortunately for him, his position necessitates that he also defends which he cannot do to save his life.
Very, very overrated one-dimensional full back.
Very, very overrated one-dimensional full back.
Awful.
He can’t defend can he.
He never has been able to, it's just his attacking has previously covered this fault.
Modern fullback. Excellent going forward, but not great defensively.
Reverse Wan Bissaka. What a player would've been if two if them merged Goku style. One man right hand side.
maybe he'll end up replacing Salah on the wing
Ain't got Big man Virgil covering for him at the back.
When you watch him carefully, you realize that while he has genuinely good crossing technique, he makes blind passes into space. He does not play it where the player is going, he just plays it hoping someone's gonna be going in that direction. It worked for a while but it's not anymore.
When you watch him carefully, you realize that while he has genuinely good crossing technique, he makes blind passes into space. He does not play it where the player is going, he just plays it hoping someone's gonna be going in that direction. It worked for a while but it's not anymore.
Did someone say he's "the best ever RB"? If they did, I wouldn't get too worked up over it. He's a very good player but has a long way to go to have those kind of statements. With that in mind, as much as some may have overhyped him, this entire thread is nothing more than a lot of people under hyping him...
I think the consistent piss take of the scousers, which of course is enjoyable, is going to fly in your face next year when they mount another title challenge and we’ve dithered in the transfer market again.
They will be nowhere near the title next season. They'll fall into the trap we did for a while, the one where you convince yourself that players who were good a couple of years ago will somehow just rediscover that form, despite all recent evidence pointing to the fact that they are just not the same players any more. Then, due to a lack of owner investment, top 4 starts seeming like an achievement again and winning major titles looks more and more like a pipedream rather than an expectation.
I haven't heard any Liverpool fans say he's the best ever. But I've heard them compare him to Becks and Scholes. They're a strange bunch.
I would be mightly suprised and impressed if that happened. This is not a slump in form, it runs much deeper than that and wont be fixed just by a summers rest.
There's zero chance this happens without major investment.
He is one of the worst defenders they've had over the years, and they've had some really bad defenders.
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I'm not even sure he has declined that much, he was never a good defender in the first place.
Their CB's and fabinho/henderson did all the defending for him, he just stayed high and slung in passes and crosses into the box regularly (which he's good at)
Now they look more like a normal team and are penetrable, his weaknesses are showing. He's far too casual when defending.
Their CB's and fabinho/henderson did all the defending for him, he just stayed high and slung in passes and crosses into the box regularly (which he's good at)
Now they look more like a normal team and are penetrable, his weaknesses are showing. He's far too casual when defending.
You would still swap him with WB
He's been pretty rubbish going forward lately.
He's basically a winger. With Van Dijk covering for him and Liverpool piling forward at every opportunity he's great, but ask him to actually defend and you're in trouble. He can't figure out when to balance attack and defence and ends up being poor at both.
Trent is better than Beckham apparently.
He'd make our already suspect defence even more shaky so I'm not sure what the point would be. We don't have the players to account for his weaknesses. Van Dijk and Fabinho/Henderson cover his arse most of the time. He wouldn't be afforded that protection at United.
I love how TAA is allowed to have a bad season because he's 22 and been playing a ton of games, while this same forum calls Rashford a donkey in a season where he is with 18 goals, all the while playing week in, week out for three seasons through shoulder and back injuries.
Why bring up the excuses for Rashford but not for Alexander-Arnold? Had corona, then a month out with a leg injury, and his usual CB pairing is out for the season. His slump in form is (one of) the result(s) of our bad run, not the cause.
What's said in here is definitely true though - he was world class going forward in a side that played to his strengths, but that's a lot harder now we're struggling and Van Dijk and Gomez are out. Hopefully he works on his defensive skills this offseason (or transitions to a more advanced position). He's always been suspect at balls over the top of his head for example and that's just down to positioning most of the time.
I'm not criticizing TAA, I have more than enough empathy for athletes struggling due to fixture overload in these scrunched up seasons, I'm more pointing out the abuse Rashford gets from our own fans on here.
Ah, fair enough. He hasn't benefited from having to be the talisman or focus point for a club like Utd from such a young age imo. The talent is obviously there, but can understand why fans get frustrated sometimes too.
I’ve always thought his defending was naff, last season he was totally overhyped because he can play a good cross. His overall game isn’t even that good. Apart from the defence not covering him anymore due to injuries he’s also got the front 3 looking like they couldn’t be bothered anymore. So he’s being found out when the system isn’t working
All that plus your front 3 look like they’ve had enough. It’s making TAA be found out as a limited player who is good in a well oiled system but sticks out like a sore thumb when the system isn’t working
If they replaced him with Max Aarons for example I think their team would work better
He's proof of what an incredible job the Klopp system can do of masking a players weaknesses and emphasising their strengths, when it's firing that is. It's why clubs bought his players from Dortmund and ended up utterly miffed at how utterly average they were outside of that.
Take a few players out of Liverpool and stick them in say Juventus and you'll quickly see plenty of Kagawa/Mihki/Sahin/Götze situations.
Take a few players out of Liverpool and stick them in say Juventus and you'll quickly see plenty of Kagawa/Mihki/Sahin/Götze situations.
I thought the plan was always to move him into the midfield ?
Hes awful as a defender.
Bad at every aspect of defending.
Hes awful as a defender.
Bad at every aspect of defending.
Cafu?
And who'd be the other poor guy left with TAA's defending and AWB's attacking? Jabba The Hutt? James Milner?
matteo Darmian
I genuinely believe that the team would be more fluid rather than someone hitting 20 deep crosses every match.
You almost had us, before you posted that one.