I know it's easy to claim "great crossing" when they go into good areas, but there aren't spurs players in those areas, and that's not great when a player actually has the time to look up and aim, and there were a couple of bad ones yesterday, but there were also some where he didn't have the time and still actually put them into great areas and no-one had gambled and gone central, they'd either hang at the back or gone near (or both). But this is still a shit load better than Walker continually just miss hitting them into he first man.
Where Trippier is much better than Walker is actually getting his head up and seeing a pass into that inside channel and playing it, perfectly weighted, he does it regularly, did it several times yesterday, including for the first goal, and it's just as good - sometimes better - than a good cross.
Whether a cross goes over everyone and sails over to the far stick or hits first man there is no difference, the cross is/was inaccurate, the result is exactly the same. (the same too from a corner, people would only site the "can't beat first man" bollocks which is the same result as a cross missing everyone and going far side and yes that also includes a cross hit "into the mixer" bullshit which people seem to approve of, despite it being easily claimed by the 'keeper or defended with ease by a 10 vs 4. When a cross doesn't beat the first man it's not because a player can't kick a ball that far, it's because they are aiming for an invisible tiny area at the near post, this invisible slot has to be far enough away from the 'keeper, high enough to beat the jumping defenders but still hit hard enough and low/flat enough for one of our players to get in-front of the oppo, is there any wonder why it's low percentage football??). I will forgive any cross that is inches away from a head or toe of one of our players running onto it, or produce the finger tips of a 'keeper to take it off the head of an attacker and obviously one that finds the head of it's target but they fail to connect well with it, all others are simply incomplete passes or shite. Trippers crossing yesterday was shite, any defence of his crossing yesterday simply isn't credible.
I 100% agree with you on his "key passes", often played around the oppo finding a run from one of our players going from in to out, these are an excellent well rehearsed passage of our play, I could watch those all day, it's much better football to watch and far more effective than just lumping it into the box, be they hit first time or not. If they are defended then we still are in a position to counter-press the defender with both Trips himself or the player he was passing to, and all in a very dangerous area of the pitch too with a panicked defender on the ball, lovely jubbly let's rejoice these, let's see more of these, those are actually better and more effective than a cross.
Don't want to make this a Walker vs Tripps debate mate, nothing personal, it's just I'm so bored of that and I've posted far too many times and my views haven't changed, suffice to say picking up on Walkers "not beating the first man" with his crosses is again utter bullshit when you ignore a) the above about what is being aimed at, this also applies to Tripps too, who regularly fails to beat the first man as was evidence yesterday b) failing to acknowledge that Walkers threat was to commit a defender because he had the ability to take on his opponents in 1vs1's and thus creating space for the likes of *insert attackers man here c) that he would more often than not cut the ball back which was by far his most effective creative part of his game (just as Trippier is with his key passes to a runner moving in to out). It's bullshit to ignore this.
This is where Poch works wonders, up until a month or so Tripps had NEVER taken on and beaten an opponent, so Poch has us adapt and we've found away around that and getting Tripps effective high up the pitch with his key passes. With Walker it was the same with his cut backs once he had beaten his man and had got behind. (I hate crosses be they from Walker, Tripps, Rose or Davies as the result is largely the same, it's nothing to do with each's ability to kick the ball, it's just they are low percentage and very rare that something actually comes from from them. Most of what I am talking about here is a cross from outside of the box, I note this as obviously if we are in the box then a cross is acceptable ball to play, the odds are significantly improved, just to make that clear what I'm against and my definition of a cross that's low percentage).