LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 25: Kyle Walker of Manchester City celebrates at full time of the Premier League match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on September 25, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)
By Daniel Taylor Oct 6, 2021 86
According to Roy Keane, Kyle Walker is a “car crash”.
Walker has won three Premier League titles, he was voted into UEFA’s team of the year at Euro 2020 and has 63 caps for England in an era when the national team has possibly its finest selection of right-backs in history. He has done all this, according to Keane, despite lacking football intelligence.
Manchester City were so taken aback by those comments after their game against Liverpool last season the club complained to Sky Sports that Keane had overstepped the mark. City’s officials made it clear they had no issue with criticisms of Walker’s performance, or overall ability, but that it had gone beyond normal punditry to say, as Keane did, that Sadio Mane was “up against an idiot”.
Sky’s executives defended Keane to the hilt. Of course they did. We live in an era when the pundit is king and when Keane goes off on one of his rants it gets everyone talking about Sky’s coverage. The footage goes viral and sometimes it seems to generate more interest than the result of the match, or what the two managers think about it. Of course Sky loves it when the bee in his bonnet starts to buzz out of control.
Walker was criticised by Keane on Sky Sports (Photos: Getty Images)
He did, nonetheless, tone down his comments when City renewed acquaintances with Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday. This time, Keane restricted himself to what could be described as more considered punditry, the old-fashioned way, by explaining what it was specifically that he did not like about Walker and trying to offer a bit of context to his criticisms.
Walker, he said, was guilty of too many individual errors, too many lapses of concentration and too many incidents when, according to Keane, he “relies on his pace to get him out of trouble”. It happened too often, was the gist of it — “that’s what irritates me, the concentration” — but there was also an acknowledgement that Walker had made a good career for himself and was an important player for City and England. “So the kid’s doing something right.”
That felt a lot more balanced than the last time he was asked for his verdict on Walker and, Keane being Keane, answered in the manner of a man who had just found a key mark scratched into his car.
All the same, it was still puzzling to hear him depicting Walker as accident-prone and for being guilty, perhaps, of staying too young too long.
“The kid” is actually 31 and regular City-watchers would say he has been playing football with an adult intelligence for years. Had it been beyond him, it might not have escaped your notice that City have sufficient resources to have upgraded him for someone who would. And, four years since joining the club, it is still Walker powering up and down the right touchline.
All of which makes him a peculiar target when Pep Guardiola, the most important judge, is picking him every week and there is reasonable evidence to corroborate the view of Micah Richards, one of Keane’s colleagues in the television studios, that Walker might actually have realistic credentials to be recognised as one of the top three right-backs in the world.
If anything, it could be argued that his reliability is taken for granted. Everyone knows Walker is as fast as a train but not enough is said, perhaps, about his uncommon levels of stamina. Walker can switch between playing as an orthodox right-back for Guardiola or as part of a back three, when necessary, for Gareth Southgate and the England team. He has to be comfortable on the ball because that is the first requirement for any Guardiola player and, in terms of old-fashioned defending, it is rare to see any opponent getting the better of him.
Walker wasn’t one of the four City players left spinning by Mohamed Salah for Liverpool’s second goal. The allegation that he is somehow a danger to his own team, or doesn’t understand the game from a positional sense, just doesn’t stack up.
As for using his pace to get out of trouble, that is very true apart from one important factor. One of Walker’s strengths is to hang back when City are on the attack and see off any danger if the opposition spring on the break. His athleticism makes him brilliant at it. In the vast majority of cases, however, it is to get his team out of trouble, not himself. And that is what Keane either fails to see or omits to mention.
This is not to say that Walker is immaculate (the original criticism came from giving away a penalty) and his behaviour during the first lockdown, when he seemed to think the rules were designed for everybody but him, opened him to allegations that he had blurred his priorities.
That, however, is not the issue in this case and, to give him his due, there has been nothing since to indicate he is not taking his profession seriously enough. Quite the opposite if you consider his general play, his supreme physical condition and the number of games when he has been culpable for a goal or a defeat (answer: not very many at all).
Walker must be good because Joao Cancelo has had to wait for an opening at left-back to establish himself in Guardiola’s first-choice XI. There have been three different seasons when Walker has been voted into the Premier League’s team of the year, once with City and twice for Tottenham Hotspur. He has lifted, on average, two trophies per season in Manchester. Wind back the video of Sunday’s game and watch how Walker draws defenders across to create space for Phil Foden to score City’s first goal. It’s a lung-splitting run, the kind of work that often goes unnoticed but will certainly be appreciated by his manager and team-mates.
As for England, it will be 10 years next month since Walker made his international debut and, in that time, four managers have selected him for the national team. Southgate did have a year or so when he preferred Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kieran Trippier but that can happen with players at this level. Walker has still won 43 caps in Southgate’s tenure and is continuing to add to that total despite the emergence of Reece James as extra competition. Only Harry Kane, with 47 appearances, has played more times for the current manager.
There is, in short, plenty to admire. Walker might not be the first City player who comes to mind when the eulogies begin for Guardiola’s team. He might not cross the ball like Alexander-Arnold and, as we saw at Anfield, he is not a dead-ball specialist in the mould of Trippier (memo to Pep: maybe return Kevin De Bruyne to free-kick taking duties). The bottom line, however, is that Walker deserves to be regarded as an elite performer. He is at the top of his profession and Roy, to think anything else is a bit of a nonsense, to use one of your own phrases.
(Top photo: James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
Daniel Taylor is a senior writer for The Athletic and has been named Football Journalist of the Year for the last four years. He was previously the chief football writer for The Guardian and The Observer and spent nearly 20 years working for the two titles. Daniel has written five books on the sport. Follow Daniel on Twitter @DTathletic.
Never understood the criticism of Walker. He is basically an ever-present in one of the best club sides in the history of English football and is also a vital cog in the national team in one of the most successful periods they have ever had.
Has to be considered as good as Ashley Cole as 2 of the top 10 full backs this country has ever seen.
