But if you look around the PL, and European football in general, where do you see RB's that we could get that would offer a guaranteed upgrade on all facets - defensive, midfield, offensive?
This notion that full backs are "defenders first" is actually pretty outdated, certainly for most proactive teams (of which we are definitely one), our FB's default position is pretty much "midfield". This is a typical positional heat map from one of our games:
I get you saying "I like my defenders to be able to defend" and in an ideal world we all do, but we also want them to dribble like Messi, cross like Beckham and - the bulk of their work - be box to box midfielders.
People accuse me of being a Trippier "fanboy". I'm not, I'd happily see us upgrade him, and I'd happily see KWP or Aurier actually given a run of games to see if they can, but unlike some I just think as a whole package, Trippier is actually a very decent little footballer, at a time when there aren't exactly a plethora of Danny Alves's or Philip Lahm's around, who gets massively scapegoated, despite doing quite a lot of things pretty well, pretty consistently.
I agree very much with what
The Mercurial No.10
said above. He's technically good, gets through a shitload of ball (more than most in our team), only Eriksen creates more chances in our team, he makes incisive passes in the final third, he's not a supreme athlete but it's not like he's fucking Corluka slow either, he gets up and down.
In our system, fb's will always be exposed, they are pushed up, ahead of the CB, often ahead of the midfield. A lot of the criticism of him is idiotic, the silly bollocks about teams targeting him more than our other flank, teams attack both our flanks because this is where we are structurally weakest. So what are we primarily asking our FB's to do? Our FB's spend most of their time as midfielders and auxiliary attackers - so we have to balance off any defensive qualities with midfield/attacking ones and take a view.
This has always been my position re Trippier. In the middle and final thirds of the pitch he's better than most in this league, and the stats - a whole range of them - back this up. (This season less so - but he's still ahead of Walker for example, despite Trippier having a poor season creatively by his standards and Walker playing for the best team the PL has ever seen.)
So you weigh up what ever he's cost us defensively (and I really don't think in real terms that is very much - 2 errors leading to goals this season for example) against what he gains you in game play in. midfield and chances created in the final third etc. I've always maintained that on balance he pays his way.
Here's the per 90's this season:
Aurier's got no "errors" but then he's only played the equivalent of about 7 games, if he'd played as much as Trippier, that might go up. Trippier's made the same as Walker - just Walker's didn't end up in goals. But Trippier sees double the ball Aurier does, and creates more double the chances (treble that of Walker). Trippier tackles and dispossess about the same as Aurier, but more than Walker.
I know some won't agree, but I really don't think having a player like Sissoko next to him has helped his season at all either, and having a mess of a midfield all season, IMO, has been a much more detrimental factor than our FB's. Sure, upgrade the FB's if we can, but that's going to be a lot more difficult than upgrading Sissoko or a non existent midfield. In terms of RB's people can only come up with AWB in the PL and he's nowhere near as good as trippier as a footballer (midfield/attack) or certainly not proven that yet anyway. But we could upgrade Sissoko with a midfielder from many teams throughout this league who would be smarter, technically better, see more of the ball, pass it better, tackle more etc.
All that said, I actually hope he gets a move this summer because he's become a scapegoat, and it's pretty pointless him being at a club where a chunk of the fan base don't like him, rightly or wrongly.