Please, mate, I urge you to watch the build-up to the 2nd pen again, then come on here and try to defend Tripps. In that passage of play alone typifies everything that I see from him in almost every single game he plays. I'll say it again and will only stop saying it when it doesn't happen, but when he plays the oppo target him, every team no matter the quality of it sees him as the weak link. It so, so, so easy to get behind hin he may as well not be there, he not just bad but he's a liability. Our shape, our style you cave is compromised because of what he doesn't bring to the team, not what he does bring to the team (he's a massive part of the jigsaw that isn't fitting now, not the sole reason but for me the biggest reason). Please, please watch it back. Also, watch when the ball is just put up in the air towards him an aimless punt soon becomes an opportunity as he treats the ball/change like a hot potato. I acknowledge his cross, the only one that found his man. All the others resulted in us losing possession of the ball, with him stuck up the pitch, now there's that style thing again, this is why we can't press as we used to, it's simply physically impossible to do so when we give away possession with 9 out of his 10 delivers. Davies was shit, gave him our 2nd lowest score.With regards your Dier point, Dier’s actually been playing in most of the other games where we’ve been a mess, lost control and in some cases lost leads this season. Very much not the panacea to any of our ills.
My self confessed anti-Dier-in-midfield bias is completely surpassed by your anti-Trippier-anywhere bias. Blaming him because Foyth made two stupid challenges is just plain daft. He was to blame for giving away possession in a stupid area, but had absolutely nothing to do with Winks giving the ball away for the second goal. And on both occasions your blue eyed boy Foyth committed completely rash and needless fouls when there was no danger to our goal.
I don't have unconditional love for Trippier, Ive called out what he did badly in his last two games, have always said I don't think he's always brilliant defensively on occasions, but for me it's always been about compromise, as it is with most of our players, we accept if they were world beaters, they probably wouldn't be with us. I don't think Trippier has generally cost us much defensively, and his midfield and attacking play is productively better than most in this league. Again, we won that game partly because Trippier created the best chance in that game. You cannot just ignore his positive contributions. I also used to watch Walker (and Rose) do stupid things defensively (Poch did improve this somewhat but he's still doing them) and more recently Aurier. If we can upgrade Trippier for a player who defends brilliantly but is also as productive creatively then I'm all for it.
Davies made a bigger error and was saved by a linesman.
I also didn't say the lack of cover was just down to the midfield, but also the front four.
It's kind of apt that following on from a great discussion in the youth thread over the last few days, we saw another great example of Poch not walking his talk of his book and being "brave" with the young players anymore. What we were absolutely crying out for in that game was the tenacious defensive dynamism and industry of Skipp. If not immediately when Dembele went off, then clearly when we'd lost control that second half. And what we really need more than anything, and what would help all our defenders - because at least three out there got exposed and made bad errors - is Poch to get back to having us play as a cohesive team without the ball, not a bunch of individuals. Grow some bollocks and play kids better suited to their roles than plodders like Sissoko and Dier in midfield. Play with some fucking intensity again.
Whilst I'd love to have seen Skipp come on, you will not find a bigger fan of him than me, that is still a massive call for Poch to make. I can't get shitty about it, why? Because we won and for large periods we had control of the game, only the last 30-20mins did we lose control. Could we have brought him on at this point? There's an argument for this of course but look how hard Sanchez found it when he came on, Wolves were "do or die", they had nothing to lose giving us the full court press could he have handled that? Also, with so many proper first team players out yesterday that risk is magnified, few "big" players to help him through the game.
If I'm going to have a gripe about lack of academy players playing then the one player that we should have playing for is Adam Smith instead of Tripps, now there is an FB (who can also play LB!!) that is twice the player Tripps is and is one of our own.