braineclipse
Willie Hall
When that high press is played through it does leave defenders exposed and he still looked mostly ok when Liverpool were good. I think he's mostly looked worse because they still press high, but do it less effectively. That is a real pain for defenders to deal with.Trent looked ok as a defender when the midfield was full of workhorses and he literally had the best CB in the world cleaning up behind him.
When you press as high as they did, with the energy levels they did and the threat of the front line, it takes the pressure off the back, as the level of the front line dropped, the pressure on back line increased and they have looked vulnerable for two years. In a vulnerable team, TAA looks suspect as fudge (way more than this season's version of Porro)
If he was given the protection of an actual well organised deep defending setup he would probably also look ok defensively.
Porro imo is significantly better defensively imo. Not quite as outstanding on the ball, but still really really good.