Player Watch: Kieran Trippier

[Joely]

He is a crap defender and his frailties get exposed when he plays as a fullback especially against the better team. As a wing back, with cover behind, he can do a job for us. He is typical of a player who can be very useful when he is dropped in now and again like he was a few seasons back but as soon as he is playing regularly, he gets shown up.

I doubt he'd want to be a bit part player now he is part of the England squad so would seriously be tempted to move him on and look at other options out there. Think we can probably get a decent fee for him to.

 

[Ghost Hardware]

It doesn’t matter what we might think of Trippier, it’s obvious that Poch trusts him above Aurier and KWP. That’s a worry.

Trippier is technically excellent, but just doesn’t have the physical dynamism to compete against the very best. He often finds himself having to play difficult passes deeper, because he either can’t beat his man or lacked the speed and power to offer himself as an option in other areas of the right flank. Sissoko has been doing a lot of his leg work of late.

Aurier has the physicallity, and sound technical ability, but his lack of concentration is his greatest fault.

KWP, despite being older than both Alexander-Arnold and Wan Bissaka, seems to be some way behind them now. I don’t think it’s for his ability, but more his slight build. However, will he ever be considered strong enough for the PL if he isn’t given a chance to play, compete and become more resilient? It’s been a year and a half since his debut away at Newcastle, and there doesn’t seem to be any improvement in this regard.

I suspect if one were to go it would be Aurier, simply because the other two are HG, despite the Ivorian having a potentially higher ceiling than either of them due to his combination of physicality and technical ability.

If we were to bring in another RB, there are options around. Win Bissaka would cost the earth; Aarons looks a good prospect; Meunièr has fallen down the pecking order at PSG (yes, another RB from them) but has always looked classy whenever I’ve seen him; and finally, Youcef Atal at Nice looks an extremely exciting prospect, full of speed, dynamism and skill.

I agree with all of this, good post. I think Trips is getting a lot of stick today primarily for one complete brain fart. For anyone to suggest the goal was not his fault for playing a blind cross field pass from a position of safety is deluded. But, to say we lost because of him is also false. We should have scored in the second half, some of our finishing was shocking and in general we were very poor across the pitch in the first. Really we should have won by several goals considering the amount of chances we created and it’s true Trips did put some good balls into the box.

But, the first half showed very clearly were our defensive problems lie (although not having a proper DM didn’t help). Our full backs. Trips might be getting it today but Davies is no better. Both are way too slow, defensively suspect and lacking in technical ability to be viable options in a team that plays a very high line with slow center backs. Even with Sanchez playing it wouldn’t make much of diffence although his pace has papered over the cracks a number of times. If we sat deeper or played three at the back and didn’t need our full backs to act like wingers then Trips at least would be very good. I find Davies the most vanilla player I have ever seen but he still puts in a shift and both he and Trips would make good back ups. But considering both seem to be first choice, or at least constantly rotate in, and Poch does expect his full backs to play like wingers and defenders then both are not nearly good enough for us. As good as we were in the second half, if Utd had been a little more efficient then they could have scored several in the first. We constantly got caught out by long balls with both Trips and Davies out of position and unable to track back in time leaving Toby and Jan to deal with two/three extreamly fast forwards. If any one of them had decided to cross the ball instead of go for glory we would have been out of it by half time.

Essentially both Tripps and Davies are decent full backs but they are both completely wrong for our system and the type of football Poch wants to play.

Aside from that your spot on about Atal, kid has been looking great this season. Fantastic on the ball, fast, very dynamic. As for Meunièr he is an excellent full back but for me he is maybe a little slow, I would prefer someone faster. Not that I see us going back to PSG for a right back. The question of what we do with KWP will come up end of season. Although he signed an extension recently I don’t see him sitting on the bench happily for yet another year. He needs to be playing if he is ever going to make it. Saying that, I do have a lot of concerns about his physicality, he is extreamly slight as you say. I do wonder if we shouldn’t loan him out to get regular PL game time. Although with our injuries we maybe need him just in case. Tough decision.

Ultimately, fixing our full backs should be right up there with getting a new CM/DM in terms of priorities IMO.

 

[Deleted member 27855]

The most hilarious thing about this is that his defenders try and act like he's something close to Cafu in his prime in the final third. He's not. He's got a terrific cross. That's literally it. He can't create space for himself. You can forget about him beating his man off the dribble. He can't do it. I've only been a Spurs fan for close to a decade. I can think of a lot of less talented players than Trippier that have come through here in that time. However, I can't think of a single player over the past 10 years that is more overrated by a portion of our fan base than he is.

 

[Japhet]

Poch has to accept some of the blame for continually playing Trippier in a back 4. If Southgate had played a back 4 at the World Cup we'd have seen the same result as we keep seeing, but with a back 3 Trippier was one of our biggest successes.

 

[rossdapep]

This made me laugh a little but it's certainly very true. Think about the amount of times Sissoko has covered for him this season because he's either not got back into position, can't get back into position or given the ball away by playing it into the worst part of the pitch when high up the pitch. We either need to adjust when he plays or drop him.

I take no pleasure singling players out but he's a weakness and we are striving to win things. Winners don't neglect their weaknesses.

 

[Paolo10]

It's his fucking job to cover him.

 

[bubble07]

It's his fucking job to cover him.

true but when lamela came on for him what was the cover plan then?

Should have brought on sanchez and gone 3 at the back

 

[Johnny J]

This made me laugh a little but it's certainly very true. Think about the amount of times Sissoko has covered for him this season because he's either not got back into position, can't get back into position or given the ball away by playing it into the worst part of the pitch when high up the pitch. We either need to adjust when he plays or drop him.

I take no pleasure singling players out but he's a weakness and we are striving to win things. Winners don't neglect their weaknesses.

What I find striking is how Kane, Alli and Son were all on top of each other. I know Kane can drop deep, because he's such a good footballer. But I still prefer him up top.

 

[Paolo10]

true but when lamela came on for him what was the cover plan then?

Should have brought on sanchez and gone 3 at the back

I don't think there was a plan at that point, players hadn't adjusted to the change. Personally would have preferred Skipp to have came on.

 

[Primativ]

People saying he’s got a great cross which he has, I suppose they’d advocate playing David Bentley at RB?

Because that essentially is what trippier. A vastly inferior David Beckham playing at RB.

It’s insane. A RB needs to be able to defend and not make major fuck ups that cost us goals. He’s incapable of doing anything other than cross.

 

[yankspurs]

People saying he’s got a great cross which he has, I suppose they’d advocate playing David Bentley at RB?

Because that essentially is what trippier. A vastly inferior David Beckham playing at RB.

It’s insane. A RB needs to be able to defend and not make major fuck ups that cost us goals. He’s incapable of doing anything other than cross.

And apparently Poch is perfectly fine with having a RB not able to defend. It's fucking baffling. We have 2 RB's who are quicker and can actually defend. We cant be willing to live with Trippier who cant defend for his life just for his crossing. It's absolutely ridiculous and it costs us.

 

[allatsea]

Poor display yet again by Tripps. Too many occasions when his own stupidity put our defence under unnecessary pressure.

 

[mike_l]

I really hate it when people lump Trippier and Davies into the same bracket, yes Davies might not as dynamic as peak Danny Rose, but he is at least steady and nowhere near as much of a liability as this prancing brainfart.

And on that topic, at least Kyle Walker's brainfarts were just that, anomalies that came out of nowhere on occasion (and often spectacularly), not a repeat pattern of play game after sodding game! Makes me wonder how bad Janssen must really be to have been stripped of his number and ostracized, yet our right back can hand goal after goal away on silver plates yet still starts despite two alternatives available.

 

[Shanks]

Let’s be honest, had our attackers done their job properly we wouldn’t be sat here saying Trippier cost us the game:

 

[mike_l]

Let’s be honest, had our attackers done their job properly we wouldn’t be sat here saying Trippier cost us the game:

As true as that might be it doesn't really make it palatable that on of our first choice defenders repeatedly gives up chances to the opposition.

 

[Paolo10]

Poor display yet again by Tripps. Too many occasions when his own stupidity put our defence under unnecessary pressure.

Was it a poor display or a poor pass?

 

[stevenurse]

Was it a poor display or a poor pass?

Bar a couple of half decent crosses I thought he was terrible. Twice he tried to do his first time side foot volley and fucked it up. Once to put martial in and another in a very promising position in their box.

 

[Stamford]

Was it a poor display or a poor pass?

From the moment he made the poor pass he played poorly, maybe his head went. Before that he did well and he played well against chelsea. I would get rid of him tomorrow if I could though

 

[allatsea]

Was it a poor display or a poor pass?

It was both a poor pass and an all round poor display. How many times did the ball bobble away from him and land at Pogba's feet ?

 

[Marty]

One of Football 365's 16 conclusions lay into Trippier and it's very hard to argue against any of it.

The goal ended with a moment of individual excellence, but started with one of individual error. Rashford’s finish was as delightful as the Pogba pass that preceded it, yet it was Kieran Trippier who laid the groundwork.

Having already been caught out of position numerous times in the first half, the right-back found himself in possession and under no real pressure on the halfway line. Instead of choosing the easy pass backwards or down the channel, he inexplicably lofted the ball in the general direction of the central midfield. It was well anticipated by Jesse Lingard, but could not have been more telegraphed if it was behind a paywall and employed Sam Wallace as its chief sports writer.

Trippier has been a liability since returning a summer World Cup hero. The problem is that while he is often central to Tottenham’s attack, he is often crucial to the opposition game plan too. There is a reason he is targeted as a point of potential weakness. His delivery is such that no player created more chances than his three, but there will be days when his productivity going forward cannot outweigh his deficiencies going back. It was no coincidence that more than half of United’s attacks (50.4%) came down his side.