04 Jan 2019 20:01:48
Good evening Ed01. I have only just read your response to a post earlier this morning in which you say that TAA was at fault for City's second goal and that he could do with extra coaching on the defensive side of his game. I actually thought that Lovren was at fault for lying a bit deep, playing Sterling onside when he received the pass from Danilo and allowing Sterling to run across our defence before slipping the ball to Sane, who was unmarked because TAA had no option but to go with Aguero's run into the box. I should stress that this is in no way an argumentative post, I am just a supporter with no coaching experience whatsoever, and I am genuinely interested to hear a bit more from someone with your coaching experience, knowledge and insight into just what TAA did wrong and how he can improve defensively. Cheers.

{Ed001's Note - I did say Lovren was brought over and was out of position as well, but Trent, on a regular basis, allows himself to come in far too narrow on the cover and so leaves too much space out wide. A lot of the time I noticed yesterday that he was shouting for someone else to go out and close down Sane when it was his man.

What he should have done in the City goal was be a little further wide, to give himself a chance to get across. He just came across too far. It is something he is prone to doing, or, the other thing he does wrong is press too high up the pitch without checking there is cover. There is a real lack of awareness from him at times. With the goal he should have seen the threat was wide of him and positioned himself accordingly. Instead he concentrates on the ball and gets himself right in the centre of the pitch, where he was not really needed.

He has to trust Lovren can at least force the attacker to slow his pace or for Lovren to drive him wider or into making the pass like he did. City had two players wide of him that he had to get in position to close out. The central area he has to trust to the centre backs in that position as anyone going past Lovren is on top of Alisson then and Trent would only get in his way and block his view.

If you are going to play two deep lying midfielders in front of the backline, then the fullbacks have to stay wide at all times or people just get in each others way and leave too much space on the flanks.}


1.) 04 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 21:14:36
Do you see TAA at full back long (er) term Ed?

{Ed002's Note - Sure.}


2.) 04 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 21:16:25
Unfortunately Lovren was appalling and can't blame anyone for not trusting him. He’d already been booked for his usual rash challenge in first 25 mins which meant he was scared to put in a tackle for rest of match. His passing forward was so bad VVD didn’t want to pass to him as he knew Lovrens pass would go straight to a City player and they’d be straight through the midfield and onto our defence. Summed up by last kick of game when usually calm VVD went mental when Lovren played a straight pass over his head instead of going from an angle. Sterling should have had a third when Lovren mis kicked in penalty area after another mistimed tackle and he was left out of position and bypassed too easily on numerous occasions and he was arguably at fault for first goal. If he stays in the side and doesn’t find form and confidence I’m afraid we won’t win the league. And saying that we would go unbeaten for whole season.


3.) 04 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 21:24:42
Ed01, you summed it up perfectly, When Sterling runs forward, Sane comes into view completely unmarked on the left and Sterling plays an easy pass, TAA is then in the box with Lovren.
As you say, if he had the awareness he would have been out wider putting pressure on Sane instead of standing on Lovrens toes, it was just too easy.
Lovren was not great last night but I don't think he was at fault for that goal. TAA is young and will learn from it.


4.) 04 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 22:06:17
Ed01 is spot on. It is always easy to blame Lovs for even standing anywhere near where a goal is scored BUT people need to use their eyes and stop being selective in who they choose to bash. When Sterling plays the ball across. Aguero runs towards the center so Lovs has to go with him. TAA is already caught up field and out of position which allows Sane to cut in thru on goal and TAA arrives too late as Sane shoots and scores. Except people want Lovs to be Mr Fantastic who can stretch himself to cover a whole left side by himself, I don't know what people want from him.

TAA is susceptible to such things and he gets caught up field in the press a lot and before he can blink, there is not one in behind when the ball is played into the gap he leaves. Lovs/ Gomez has to get out there and then when the goal is scored, he gets the blame. TAA did the exact same thing at Chelsea where he followed Hazard too deep into midfield and got caught out with a one-two ball and Hazard gets in and scores. You can bash Lovs all you want BUT he cannot be in two places at the same time.

{Ed025's Note - he only has to be in one place mate...on the bench.. :)


5.) 04 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 23:30:30
025 luv ya.


6.) 05 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 23:40:59
TAA also at fault for the first goal, if he carried on his run he could of cut the cross out to augero instead he just stopped in his tracks which he also done on a few other occasions while the play was going on around him.


7.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 01:48:31
TAA and Lovren didn’t play well together, end of.

I still think the main issue was we missed Gomez with his pace and read of the game, Lovren is much better against the larger physical players than players with pace and movement.

Having said that TAA’s biggest problem was leaving all the space behind him as he kept pushing too high, and agree with Ed perhaps two deep midfielders would have suited him better to allow one to push across to cover Sané.


8.) 05 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 21:07:25
Ed. you put trust and Lovren in the same sentence. Please allow me the courtesy of pulling you on that comment 😇.

{Ed001's Note - yeah I know, but sometimes you have to mate. VVD was close enough to provide cover anyway (if I remember correctly), and Alisson is there behind him. Sometimes you have to take a chance and there were two men free out wide that Trent should have been closer to in order to stop what happened.}


9.) 05 Jan 2019
04 Jan 2019 21:34:42
Ed01, many thanks for taking the time to provide such a comprehensive response, just what I was looking for. I get so fed up with so-called experts (pundits, commentators, journalists, etc) offering cliched opinion as ‘professional insight’ and it is refreshing to get the real thing on this site. I will watch TAA in a new light and will even impress my match-going mates with my new found insight into our defensive play. Incidentally, who do you regard as the ideal PL full back as the role model for TAA to learn from?

{Ed001's Note - sadly I don't think there is one right now. It would be going back and looking at someone like Rob Jones at his peak. The key though is his awareness, very few young players do have it any more as teams are almost always packed full of players who began as attackers and were not good enough so got moved backwards into defensive positions. The players who play in attack in kids teams are almost invariably those with the best technique (or biggest/strongest/fastest) which is all clubs seem to care about now. There is little real thought given to looking at the rest of the game.

You look at how the likes of George Graham would drill their players over and over until defending became automatic and then look at modern day teams whose backline is very rarely moving with the same fluidity and organisation. The game has become unbalanced towards attacking play and technique and away from defensive organisation.

I would have him watching Henderson to be honest. Watch how he is constantly looking around him to see where everyone is. When you watch Trent he does not look around him at all and, like Lovren on the first goal, he does not get his body shape right to see them. If he is not even going to notice when a player is behind him, then no amount of watching videos will help him! He has to first be looking around to notice them, then, when he has done so, he can position himself better.

Lovren needs to do more to help him as well, to be fair. Lovren is an experienced centre back who should be screaming at Trent to tell him what is behind him.}


10.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 10:45:48
Ball watching is one of the worst things a defender can do. I love TAA but he does ball watch a lot.


11.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 11:30:40
Trent is a young centre mid making a huge step up to right full in a top team

I honestly see the issue with lovren it was against United last season when lukaku bullied him and rashford ran Trent into the ground


Lovren just doesn't communicate to the full backs he just isn't good enough he is almost good enough but costs us big games and big goals


Id sell in the summer and get someone else with Gomez our main right sided centre half.


12.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 13:11:21
Communication in a defence is KEY to any good defence. If they are not talking to each other then it is not going to matter who you have back there. It will be a crap show. Lovs needs to be more demanding of TAA going forward as VVD is of Robertson who gets a dress down from VVD when he screws up.

I agree with Ed01 that TAA needs to be reeled in a little bit cos in big games, he clearly goes walk-about and then leaves gaps in behind, leaving Lovs or Gomez with an impossible task when we lose the ball. And for people saying Gomez this or Gomez that, I propose you go watch the Chelsea game where TAA does the EXACT same thing and Hazard is in and scores. Gomez like Lovs was vs City, were in an impossible position so if you think Gomez will fix TAA's penchant for going walk-about then you are fooling yourselves. Can Lovs do more? Of course he can and Ed has alluded to it BUT to say that Gomez will suddenly be Superman and cover a whole right side when he has two players to pick up, is ludicrous. Blaming Lovs for TAA's inherent issues is unfair and ridiculous, IMO.


13.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 12:44:41
I'd like to see Liverpool spend big on a really top right-back to take the pressure off Trent. He's still young to be given so much responsibility. Ed001 mate are there any out there that you rate highly and you would want?

{Ed001's Note - only Wan-Bissaka and he is just as young and raw as Trent.}


14.) 05 Jan 2019
05 Jan 2019 23:22:06
In The games I’ve watched them play together live this season Lovren and Trent have been a constant liability.

Many a time Alisson has bailed them out or the opposition haven’t been good enough to take advantage. Take Man U for example, every attack they had came from that side but they were only good enough to score on the occasion Alisson couldn’t bail them out.
They are a big weakness and opposition managers know this because they target them.

Lovren goes to pieces when he isn’t facing the opponents goal. So turn him round, get him facing his goal or the sideline and he is out of his depth.

Trent is just not good enough defensively, he’s a classical attacking wing back.

Most opponents are not good enough to take advantage but you can’t give Aguero the space he had because he is world class, the best finisher in the premier league in the last 10yr, and he WILL score.