Trippier’s a free-kick ace, so give him the ball!

IT WAS October 4, 2015, when Tottenham last scored a goal from a direct free-kick in the Premier League; two in the same game, in fact, both taken by Christian Eriksen. That means it is close to three years since Eriksen last did his job from a dead-ball shooting position. Yet when Tottenham got a freekick within range against Fulham on Saturday, he still insisted on taking it, ushering Kieran Trippier (left) aside. Eriksen missed, twice. Later in the game, when Trippier finally got over the ball in a similar position, he scored. And Tottenham are the last club one would single out for not affording English players opportunities, but does this not sum up the way homegrown players are viewed? Trippier proved an excellent free-kick taker for England at the World Cup, but Eriksen was not demoted and too arrogant to step away. Imagine it the other way around. If an English player had missed consistently for close on three years — including 16 times last season — and the club had a superb, foreign, dead-ball specialist on the staff, the lad from Bury would be told in no uncertain terms who the new taker was. Why didn’t the same apply?