Dribble
Well-Known Member
Walker is 33. His biggest asset is pace. He doesn't read the game well on defense; on offense he's of course decent, but not at all exceptional. At his age, Walker's pace is going to shortly fall off a cliff.
Walker's been part of the best defence in the Premier League for the last six years, so I fail to see how he doesn't read the game defensively.
In terms of offence, Walker had specialist wide attackers in Sané, Sterling, Mahrez, Foden & Bernardo in front of him. His job is to get the ball out wide to them, support them in attack, or to recycle it to central midfielder & to be ready to defend in the event of the attack breaking down.
Kyle has an 89% passing accuracy. In comparison Rodri has a 91% passing accuracy, with Gundog on 93%.
In terms of defending, City concede a goal every 98 minutes with Walker playing.
As for pace, Walker is far ahead of any full back I can think of ever. In fact he's the quickest defender in Premier League history clocking a blistering 37.802 kph making him the quickest player in world football last season. Even if he "fell off a cliff", he'd still easily be the world's quickest player even if his pace dropped by 1km.
Kyle may not have the passing range of KDB (but then who does), & he may not be the defensive wall that Dias is, but overall he's as effective as anyone we've got as evidenced in the toughest matches we've played.
None from Neymar, Mbappé, Vini Jnr or Davies have got any change from a foot race with Walker & he's managed to dispossess them all & complete pressure relieving passes to setup fresh attacks.
Yes, Pep says we've got better options to move from defence to join Rodri as a double pivot, but with Stones now doing this from centre back, Walker's equally adept at playing the right side of a back three as he is as full back in a back four.
Mate, Walker deserves respect for his unique skill set, not City fans decrying his evident quality & predicting his demise without a shred empirical evidence to backup their ridiculous claims.
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