Tottenham Talkline: Spurs must keep hold of Walker

Rumours are floating around that Kyle Walker may be off to Manchester United in the near future. However, Spurs must do all in their power to keep the Englishman on their books. Though it may not be the best of times to praise him after his unfortunate role in Chelsea’s second goal of the Capital One Cup final, it is worth remembering that the ever-improving youngster is beginning to play a pivotal role at the club.

Firstly, Walker’s pace is a useful tool in defence. He’s proven many times this season that he is able to turn defence into attack in the time it takes Usain Bolt to run 100m. It’s not just pace alone though. His reading of the game and timing has certainly improved since he first appeared for Spurs back in November 2008. In his ten league games for Spurs this season, he has won 58% of his tackles and 56% of his aerial challenges (Squawka). To put this in perspective, in the same ten games that Walker played, only three of his team-mates have won more duels (tackles and aerial challenges combined) who include Hugo Lloris, Federico Fazio and Jan Vertonghen. Ignoring Lloris, who will naturally have a higher percentage as any unsuccessful sweeping challenge of his results in Spurs conceding a goal, Walker is the third best defender in the team based on these statistics.

Secondly, his speed has created six chances in his ten games. Not bad for a right-back. He has completed eleven out of sixteen take-ons, including a bamboozling run against Arsenal, where his pace not only beat Mesut Özil to the ball, but completely outdid the German when bursting down the wing.

Coming back from his long-term injury, these are good signs for Walker. However, he has a lot of work to put in in order to become not just a good defender with his pace, but an excellent defender with a calm and collected mentality.

Walker’s downfall is his fouling. He’s committed nineteen fouls in his ten games which: some fouls are necessary; but often Kyle Walker’s are needless. Whether it’s a momentary slip of concentration, or getting riled up by a tricky opponent, Walker does have a tendency to foul. Critically, Walker has certainly improved on this over the past few years. It all comes with experience. Some of the hot-blooded youth is leaving him as he becomes a more thoughtful and controlled defender. At the age of 24, he really should be disciplined and that is being proven in his recent performances this year.

Looking for alternatives to Walker is quite a mixed bag of thoughts for Spurs fans. Most notably, Vlad Chiricheș and Eric Dier, two Spurs centre-backs have, filled the right-back berth. The only trouble is that firstly, Walker’s pace is missed, but secondly it narrows the play and also Spurs lose an important attacking asset. Both Chiriches and Dier haven’t really done enough to take the role for their own, but seemingly, they’d both rather play at centre-back anyway. The most hopeful and promising replacement to Walker is DeAndre Yedlin, who is almost a carbon copy in some ways to Walker. Yedlin too has lightning pace and loves to bomb forward. He is reminiscent of the young Kyle Walker though. At the moment, he is a promising, yet raw talent. But, just like Walker, Yedlin could easily develop into a good Premier League player one day.

Spurs must keep hold of Walker. While the likes of Yedlin hold good promises for the future, the future isn’t good enough for the present.