Birmingham City boss John Eustace has been able to witness Auston Trusty’s smooth transition first-hand this season, and although Trusty is set to rejoin his parent club Arsenal in May, Eustace isn’t set to let him go one bit.
Trusty has been one of the Blues best players this season in the English Football League Championship, jumping right into the first team and playing a leading role in their backline. The former MLS homegrown defender has featured in all 32 matches for Birmingham City across all competitions, scoring four goals and adding one assist in league play.
Trusty is still fairly new to the English game, but Eustace has been impressed with his immediate transition to a grueling Championship schedule.
“I think he is a terrific player,” Eustace said in his pre-match press conference, transcribed by Birmingham Live. “I think with Auston we have to remember he has come off the back of a full MLS season, so he’s touching nearly 50-60 games in a row now.
“It’s about getting that consistency,” Eustace added. “Would I have liked to have rested Auston throughout the season? 100%, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that. So his performances have also dipped throughout the season because of a lack of help, support I would like to have given him. But he is coming back now, he is coming back strong, his last couple of performances have been excellent.”
The 24-year-old logged over 120 appearances during his four-and-a-half seasons in MLS, first coming through the Philadelphia Union academy before starting in Jim Curtin’s backline in back-to-back years. Trusty moved to the Colorado Rapids ahead of the 2020 season and continued to develop as an all-around defender before earning his transfer to Arsenal last summer.
Trusty’s long-term future at the Emirates Stadium remains unknown for the time being, and should Arsenal consider selling him this summer, Eustace hopes Birmingham City can get a deal done.
“I would love him at the football club going forward,” Eustace said. “I think everyone connected to Birmingham City would love him to be part of the football club but we also respect he is an Arsenal player, a very good player but it’s something we can hopefully push at the end of the season.”
18th-place Birmingham City hosts West Bromwich Albion on Friday in a battle between Trusty and fellow MLS product and USMNT hopeful Daryl Dike.
While Birmingham aren’t doing all that great this season, Trusty has done well there while on loan. As one of the few true left footed CBs in the player pool and with poor play of many of Gregg’s preferred CB’s…..Trusty is a player who deserves an opportunity with the USMNT, especially if the US moves towards a 3 back system.
He’s a decent to good distributor, athletic/speedy enough to defend in space, and is good in the air.
For a team to have given up the least amount of goals in NL, GC and WCQ, and dare I mention only giving up 1 goal the entirety of group play in Qatar, I don’t know how anyone can say that our CB’s have played poor
Considering CONCACAF is one of the weakest confederations and was weaker still this past cycle (Mexico was a shell of it’s historical norm as was Costa Rica) the goals allowed in NL, GC, and even WCQ is not a very good indicator of the quality of our CBs. Especially considering that we had 3 of the best in region midfielders playing in front of them (shielding).
Before the injury Long was decent….after the injury he was atrocious. Thankfully when Long went down Miles stepped up until he suffered the same injury Long did. We’ll see how he performs in the upcoming season.
Richards, CCV, & EPB had little/no involvement in the 2022 cycle due to Gregg’s favoritism of Long (post injury) and Zimmerman who was an inconsistent in performances at best. Gregg realized at the last minute (friendlies just before the WC) that Long wasn’t going to cut it. And with Richards injured he was forced to call in Ream. Otherwise I think we’d have been swept aside quickly at the WC.
“how anyone can say that our CB’s have played poor”
As others have noted, for three years before the World Cup the USMNT did not play an offense that was worth a fuck. Certainly not in a competitive situation where blood and money were on the line. The hope was that at least Mexico would prove a worthy adversary. They turned out to be an embarrassment, a joke.
When you don’t test your team against real opposition every once in a while, then you get what you get.
CB’s are not the entire defense, good or bad . Nevertheless, under Gregg the first time the defense was really tested was against Wales in the World Cup.
The only legit rating of our CB pool is this:
Zimmerman, hot and cold, foolishly gave away unnecessary penalty. Decent defender if you can live with the occasional vital game losing mistake. May not be around in 2026
CCV , solid but boring. American fans hate boring. In the mix for 2026.
Ream, excellent, not to be counted out for 2026 given the generally low level of football intelligence our other defenders tend to have.
Every other CB prospect is a ???.