That's EXACTLY what I've always said. His numbers attest to this 109 more crosses than Aurier in just 51 games!!!Trippier used to cross:
- Whether there was a cross on or not.
- As a means of getting rid of the ball cos he refused to try and beat a man.
- The majority of the time early from deep where it would get calmly gobbled up by the two CBs sat by default in the D on the edge of the box.
It wasn't he refused to beat a man, he couldn't beat a man. Just also take a look at the volume of backwards passes he made to attest to this. This happened when he was pressed. So, what we did with him to get him up the pitch was to play a ball behind down the line for him to run onto, I suggest that the reason for his crosses to be so inaccurate (again, crossing is low percentage anyway, for ALL players) was to cross quickly, often first time or before he was closed down only adding to the difficulty and hence despite 109 more crosses than Aurier he assisted so few from them.
And yes, he also used to cross early from deep, another waste, and this puts huge pressure on the team as it meant we conceded possession cheaply and whilst committing men forward in an effort to get on the end of these balls, meaning we could be counter-attacked with players out of position. Many other reasons why we started to concede so many shots on our goal but this was a huge contributory factor.
He was highly effective at playing a short ball around the corner or between LB and CB, this was a well-rehearsed move for us and something he should have focused more on. It pulled oppo out of position and our attacking players could exploit the space it left.