Kyle Walker returns to league action with Spurs this weekend and the right back might just be grateful to get away from the international spotlight. The 23 year old is first choice at Tottenham and has just signed a new deal with the club but criticism of his performances never seems to be far away.
Walker started for England in Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat at the hands of Germany and this is just one of the post match comments received – in this instance from former Spur Jamie Redknapp.
“Kyle Walker worries me. I lost count of how many times the ball was played inside him because he doesn’t cover. He goes flying forward, but seems often to make the wrong choices and gets regularly caught out of position. Glen Johnson is a safer bet. You need to be more than an athlete.”
Sound familiar? There are other comments to go with it but are they justified in the wake of Tuesday’s game specifically and are they a concern when translated to displays at club level?
Oh dear – a short of a nightmare performance from Smalling and Gerrard yet Redknapp focuses on Walker – nothing like getting his own back on behalf of his old man – get over it Redknapps!!!!
You are such a lame duck jamie. KW is a far better defender than GJ every was. I agree he can be susceptible but he is getting better. Smalling, Cleverly, were and are not good enough, why we still persist with gerrard and Lampard when they have failed too mnay times. Why are we not building a new young side? Muppets
not for the first time Jamie Redknapp watching a different game to the rest of the world. Walker was excellent against Germany, far an away better than Cole on the other side. As for his comments about Johnson being more of an athlete, what the fuck is he on about? Walker is the fittest, fastest player England have. He’s nothing if not not athletic. Ask Bale who the fastest player he’s ever played against is – Kyle Walker. He could never beat him in training.
Johnson is fucking lame
You can’t read mate. His point was that Walker is a better athlete but he’d still prefer Johnson
You are fucking lame
Johnson is shit at defending never has been any good !!!!
you’re really a moron – Redknapp was making that very point, that Walker is more of an athlete than Johnson but he was saying that isn’t enough – duh!
What does that loser scouser know? Bitter cos he was shit, his old man got sacked by us and didn’t even get a look in for the England role. Get back under the rock you came from Redknapp
Leave the boy alone – he clearly has confidence and ability but sometimes not making the right choices – he is 23 Ffs!. Unless u all want an out and out right back who doesn’t go over his half way line then he is way ahead of anyone in England – so dissappointed in Jamie saying this crap – maybe and hopefully it is press (as always) distorting what he really said
I’m a big Walker fan but JR makes a good point. KW is great going forward and sometimes impressive at racing back to regain position but his passing can be appallingly wayward. Note the wretched backward “pass” he made at Liverpool last season when Spurs were leading. His mistake led to Liverpool equalizing and they eventually won the game. That was possibly the turning point in Spurs’ season cos they never recovered. KW has the goods to be a great right back … if he’ll only learn from his mistakes.
I’ve been saying this all along. Walker is a disaster waiting to happen. Redknapp described him exactly. All Walker does is run. That’s his only positive aspect of the game. He’s got nothing else – no good passes; horrible at defending, especially giving away free-kicks in dangerous situations; disappearing or not marking players in our defence penalty area. You name it.
The problem with a lot of Spurs fans is that they are too one-eyed, never accepting the truth. Sometimes I wonder if they do ever watch games, or if they do, they watch with very tinted glasses.
In the end, I blame AVB for keeping him as No.1 at RB, instead of buying a more capable one in the summer window. This is another defect of AVB – doesn’t see which players are liabilities to the team -effectively costing it points.
The same could be said of Dawson, mind you. He’s not that rash, but he’s still a liability.