Rovers have bolstered their midfield with another deadline day signing after confirming the acquisition of Norwich City midfielder, Tom Trybull, on a season-long loan deal.
The Berlin-born midfielder, who will have the #19 on his back at Ewood Park, temporarily departs recently-relegated Norwich City after just over three years in Norfolk. Trybull, who joins Rovers to add competition in the centre of the park, especially following Lewis Travis’ long-term injury, arrives in Lancashire with promotion experience, which could prove vital for Rovers as the season wears on.
The 27-year old German spent much of his career playing sporadically between Germany’s Premier League, Championship and League One equivalent, for several teams, including Werder Bremen. After playing 69 games for the various Hansa Rostock youth teams between 2008-10, which included winning the under-19 Bundesliga in 2009-10, Trybull was eventually handed his debut for Rostock, off the bench in their 2-2 draw with Dynamo Dresden in the 3.Liga. Trybull’s first 90 minutes for Hansa – who were top of the table at the time – came in February 2011, as Trybull helped the Ostseestädter to a clean sheet in a 2-0 win against Rot Weiss Ahlen. In his debut season for the Hansa first-team, Trybull went on to prove his worth as a tough tackling defensive midfielder by making 18 appearances throughout 2010-11, as Rostock went on to finish runners-up in the 3.Liga and earn a place in the 2011-12 2.Bundesliga.
After impressing in his debut season with the Rostock first-team, Trybull was snapped up by Bundesliga side Werder Bremen for the 2011-12 season for a fee reported to be around €200,000. Despite starting the first half of the campaign with the Bremen B side in the 3.Liga, his reliable performances in the centre of the park during his 17 appearances for the B team, which also yielded two assists, saw him called up for the first-team after spending a couple of games on the bench. The German was given his debut in the Bremen first-team in January 2012 and played the full 90 minutes on the left-hand side of midfield, as Bremen and Kaiserslautern played out a goalless draw. His performance for Die Grün-Weißen saw him stay in the side until the end of the season, as he notched up 15 games in the top tier, scoring once against Hamburg and assisting twice over the course of the campaign. Although the 2011-12 season proved profitable for the young midfielder, the 2012-13 season proved catastrophic, as his development and ability to participate in matches was hindered by a foot injury that kept him sidelined for all but four Bundesliga games.
The 2013-14 campaign saw Trybull struggle to regain his place in the Bremen side, as he only managed two Bundesliga appearances, off the bench, before he was allowed to sign for 2.Bundesliga side, St. Pauli in a bid for first-team football, for a fee of approximately €100,000. That change proved profitable for Trybull as he played in 12 of St. Pauli’s 15 remaining games, missing one game due to a suspension following a second yellow card, and the other two because he was dropped. Trybull would go on to make four more appearances for St. Pauli over the next season, before departing Kiezkicker on a free transfer in the summer of 2015, opting to sign for fellow second division side Greuther Fürth. Despite being snapped up, Trybull, now 22, again failed to establish himself in Fürth’s first-team, spending the season with their B team making 18 appearances, scoring once and assisting once, before again departing, this time for Eredivisie side, Ado Den Haag.
After making the second free switch of his career, Trybull was able to come into Den Haag and assert himself as a central figure in Den Haag’s midfield as they switched between a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 which allowed Trybull to play in a holding role, and a 4-3-3, which gave him a defensive partner in midfield. In total, the German played in 28 games in all competitions, with 23 of them being in the league as the Dutch outfit finished in mid-table in Trybull’s only season with De Ooievaars.
In the summer of 2017, following a sound season with Den Haag, Trybull swapped the technical game of the Eredivisie for the physicality of the Championship as he joined six other Germans in being recruited as part of Daniel Farke’s ‘German Revolution’ at Norwich City, at the start of the 2017-18 Championship season. After a shaky start with lack of fitness, which saw him play two games with the Norwich’s under-23s, Trybull soon made his Carrow Road debut, playing the full 90 minutes, as Norwich secured a solid 1-0 victory against Birmingham City. Trybull’s introduction to the side saw them keep six clean sheets in his first 12 games for the club. After notching his first couple of goals for the Canaries over the couple of months of 2018 – the second of which proved to be the winner against Middlesbrough in February 2018 – the former Den Haag man was then sidelined for 14 games with a ligament injury, only managing to recover before the final two games of the season, as Norwich finished the 2017-18 season in 12th, with Trybull appearing in 20 of the 46 possible league games.
The German’s second season in English football proved to be more successful than his first, as he not only increased his playing time within the Norwich City squad as they stormed the league to claim the Championship title, but Trybull himself earnt his second career promotion, following the one he earnt with Hansa Rostock, in 2010-11. Trybull’s inclusion within the Norwich side proved paramount to the fluency in their 4-2-3-1 system, as they finished the 2018-19 season as champions, atop of the pile and earnt themselves promotion back to the Premier League, after an absence of three years. During his second season with the Canaries, Trybull only picked up the one goal, from his 31 league appearances, but finished with a respectable successful tackle percentage of 68%, as he made 72/106 tackles he attempted. For comparison, Lewis Travis’s tackling statistics from his 43 appearances in last season’s disrupted 2019-20 season showed he made 110/180 tackles, which gives him a success rate of 61%. Moreover, Trybull’s foul count from 2018-19, was at 46 fouls from the 31 games he played, whilst Travis’ last season was up at 68 from the 43 games, he played in 2019-20. Furthermore, the defensive midfielder played his part in helping Norwich achieve 10 clean sheets from the 31 games he took to the field in. The clean sheets show how valuable Trybull was for Norwich during this season, as from the 15 games he didn’t play in, Norwich only kept three clean sheets, including one in the 1-0 win over Rovers at Ewood Park in December 2018.
Norwich’s return to the Premier League in 2019-20 proved to be incredibly frustrating for all associated with Norwich City, including Trybull, as he only featured in half of the league games, he did in 2018-19, only managing 16 Premier League outings. Although Norwich found clean sheets hard to come by, Trybull found himself out of the team during the early part of 2020, prior to lockdown, with his last appearance coming in a 15-minute cameo appearance at home to Tottenham Hotspur in December 2019. Despite Norwich then playing another nine games before the season’s suspension, it wasn’t until after lockdown when Trybull returned to the Norwich side. The German managed to play 62 minutes in Norwich’s 3-0 defeat against Southampton, before making his final appearance of the campaign, two games later, playing half of City’s 4-0 loss at Arsenal. Since their return to the Championship, and following reports of a disagreement between midfielder and manager, Trybull has not made any of the four matchday squads in the league and also missed Norwich’s 3-1 defeat in the Carabao Cup First Round, which came at the hands of Luton Town, as Farke suggested that he wished to change the personnel and attributes within his central midfielder.
Norwich’s loss proved to be Rovers’ gain, with the Lancashire side acquiring a tough tackling midfielder, who’s capable of breaking up the play in the middle of the park, given that he finished with the joint 12th most interceptions during Norwich’s promotion campaign. Trybull, who earnt a 6.95 average rating across all the different positions he played, also proved difficult to dispossess, as he only made 17 unsuccessful touches and was only dispossessed of the ball 29 times from the 31 appearances he made, which shows his ability, both on the ball and his distribution. To build on his average rating, Trybull’s performances increased to a 7.28 when deployed as either a central or defensive midfielder, which again placed him as the third highest rated central and defensive midfielder from players who played 20 or more games in those positions. Furthermore, his passing from the centre of the park spoke volumes of his ability to keep position ticking over, as of the 1404 passes he attempted over the course of his 22 games playing in the middle of the park, he made 37/57 – (65%) – of his long balls and 1222/1347 – (91%) – of his short passes.
Despite having a rocky start to his club career, Trybull when under the age of 20, had been a regular squad-maker for Germany’s youth categories. Having started his international journey in 2009 with the under-17s, he soon gradually rose through the youth rankings before peaking at the under-20s, being unable to force himself any higher, due to the incredible quality within German’s midfield and his own lack of consistent game time, prior to his Norwich move. Despite that, Trybull boasts 10 youth caps, two with the under-17s, one with the under-18s, three with the under-19s and four with the under-20s. Sadly, for the midfielder, they were all during friendlies, as he was unable to make the field for any competitive fixtures the German youth sides may have had, such as a Euros or World Cup qualifier, or the final tournaments themselves.
With the temporary acquisition of Trybull, who leaves Carrow Road after netting three goals, it is clear that Rovers have acquired a tough tackling midfielder who is also more than capable of breaking up flowing moves without committing a lot of fouls and also being able to pick out a pass that is capable of releasing Rovers’ speedy frontmen. Moreover, Trybull’s addition will undoubtedly provide competition for and help fill the gaping hole left by Lewis Travis, following his injury at Newcastle United, back in September. Here’s hoping that Trybull can find his feet quickly and replicate the form he showed at Carrow Road, two seasons ago, in order to help Rovers, push towards where they want to be.
