Kyle Walker’s £50 million move to Manchester City last month left Tottenham short at the back, and things only got worse when Kieran Trippier injured his ankle against Juventus at Wembley.
Spurs are expected to sign a right-back, but a new recruit was the last thing on the minds of the fans on Sunday.
In a surprise move, Mauricio Pochettino gave a debut to 20-year-old Kyle Walker-Peters in defence. He was named man of the match as Tottenham cruised to a 2-0 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park.
The day before, Kyle Walker played his part in a 2-0 win for Manchester City at Brighton. But which Kyle was better?
The numbers show that, at least statistically, Spurs debutant Walker-Peters had the better weekend. As the image below indicates, the youngster covered more miles, made more tackles and finished with a better pass completion rate than his near-namesake.
Kyle Walker-Peters vs Kyle Walker. #THFC pic.twitter.com/jmED2qyf2W
— Marc Benamram (@MarcBenamram) August 13, 2017
No one is saying Walker-Peters is anywhere near eclipsing Walker, but the academy graduate’s debut gave Tottenham supporters plenty to get excited about.
Walker was no where near this good st the same age. We loaned him out, and he took several more years to get going.
Walker -P looks more natural and very assured for his age.
I’m a big Walker fan and not st all putting him down, but just simply Walker -P seems a far better all round player. Wdljer was snd is all speed and does not have a final pass. Walker P just seems better somehow .
Surprised me I admit I bevercexpected that performance. No way.
it did not surprise me. Walker is wildly overrated. As everyone knows he has very little to offer by the way of end product, and is always liable to pull something stupid in defense, though admittedly less often than a few years ago when he was an accident waiting to happen. His “athleticism” is not enough, and these days is not all that uncommon.
Two totally different games, Brighton rarely came out of defence but Newcastle at least had a go at Spurs. Walker was easily man of the match for City and it seems silly to come out and put pressure on a young player like Peters.