Look at today for example. Yes Doku completed some dribbles, but most times Trent funneled him to the byline or inside and Doku wasn’t really threatening for the most part. Yet the prevailing narrative is that he got destroyed by Doku.
He has actually been decent to good at defending this season yet people say he’s been a horrific defender. I don’t think this is quite true if you watch him play.
I won’t claim that he’s an amazing defender but he’s not a bad one either, he’s just a perfectly average to good defender but the narrative is that he’s a liability. It’s frustrating to see.
Same with anyone in a big six club tbh it’s hard to even care about the league haha
I think Trent’s defending gets brought up a lot because he’s so often in conversations of being one of the best full backs in the world and it is logical to therefore bring up the fact that he is an average defender. It’s probably a bit overblown and I think in the past systems have not aided him, but there’s a lot of examples of him being a middling 1 on 1 defender, and also a number of examples of him losing his man or ball watching.
Imo his skill set is not really about being a good defender but when you’re arguing about him vs Walker or Reece James for an england team for example it’s clear he’s a less multifaceted player than them and that’s to do with him defending at a much lower level.
I think it is probably overblown, but I don’t think today is a particularly good example of why.
Apart from the goal, TAA wasn’t actually especially good all-around today, particularly in direct comparison to Doku, who had a higher Opta match rating (MOTM) and FPL BPS total (tied with Ake for most in the game) than TAA despite not having scored or assisted. Without the goal, he would have been in the 6 out of 10 range along with most of his teammates (only Salah got above 7 because of his nominal assist for TAA’s goal, which was more poor defending from City than exceptional play from TAA).
Doku actually created quite a few good chances throughout the match, most often by beating TAA, his teammates just couldn’t put them away or TAA’s teammates were able to cover to stop a shot on goal. Another day and Doku could have had two assists.
TL;DR
TAA is not nearly as bad at defending as often portrayed by pundits or rival fans but today’s match isn’t particularly strong evidence (other matches this season would be).
I can’t remember the last time he got cooked. The last few times started become less and less frequent by the point where it was only Vinicius, Mitoma and Martinelli that did him. Only by 3 top wingers in the world. And now even less frequently. This whole “he can’t defend bs” is from people that don’t watch football regularly and currently.
Honestly, he’s overhated and i dont know why. Like why do people hate on a frikin right back lolll. He’s not the best defensively, and he’s one of the best offensively. I dont think anyone is confusing that
Its kind of weird because he usually performs well in defense when put in a spotlight having a guy like Doku in front of him. His actual problem in defense is his positioning during counter-attacks when he often forgets what he needs to do or falls asleep putting himself in bad positions.