Rio Ferdinand has torn Kieran Trippier to shreds for his defending in the first-half of Tottenham’s 4-3 loss against Manchester City at the Etihad on Wednesday night.
Raheem Sterling opened the scoring for City in the Champions League quarter-final when he was allowed to cut inside by Trippier, who failed to show the England forward onto his weak foot and prevent him from shooting at goal.
During the half-time analysis, Manchester United legend Ferdinand let rip of Trippier, suggesting that the Spurs right-back failed to do the basics once Sterling had the ball.
“Once he gets there, Trippier does nothing to stop Sterling coming onto his favoured right foot,” said Ferdinand on BT Sport 2 at half-time [08:44pm]. “You watch him here, it’s too easy.
“As a full-back, you know your players. You don’t show him inside there, you can’t. You’ve got to show him to the line and make him cross it with his weaker foot.
“He doesn’t do either and that allows him to come inside and what a finish from Sterling.”
OPINION
Trippier has had a poor season for Tottenham and he really should have done a lot better to stop Sterling from scoring on Wednesday night. Not only was Trippier’s defending awful for that goal, he also lost track of Sterling when he scored his second of the night after a low cross into the box by Kevin De Bruyne. Spurs fans will more than likely want Trippier dropped for that poor performance, but Kyle Walker-Peters is way too inexperience for games like this and Serge Aurier is just as bad as the former Burnley player at times. It is an area that Mauricio Pochettino should look at improving in the summer transfer window. However Spurs are going to need central midfielders, potentially a new centre-back and new back-up strikers before looking at signing a new right-back. Knowing Daniel Levy, he won’t free up the funds to sign an upgrade on Trippier.