How Kyle Walker developed from Tottenham’s marauding full back to City’s insurance policy, a thread 1/

When City signed Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy in summer 2017 it was reasonable to assume that Pep wanted to replace his 4 ageing full backs with 2 of the best flying full backs in the game. It didn’t quite work out like that 2/

Walker’s heatmap from his final season at Spurs checks out with the theory but when compared with Walker and Mendy’s heatmaps from the following season we can see that Walker’s game had evolved. Mendy, as expected, is high and wide but Walker is doing much of his work inside 3/

This affected Walker’s numbers. When we look at his crossing we can see a huge drop in attempted crosses per 90 when Walker moves from Spurs (16/17) to City (17/18) and his numbers at City remain consistently low over the following seasons 4/

When Walker signed for City Gary Lineker famously tweeted, below. Gary has been proven right, Walker’s cross accuracy has been under 10% in all but one of his seasons at City. For comparison both Mendy and Cancelo have a cross accuracy of 20%+ during their time at City 5/

Interestingly when City have been forced to play an inverted left back in place of the injured Mendy, Walker’s attempted crosses have remained low. Pep hasn’t changed his ask of Walker in the absence of the natural width Mendy provides on the opposite side 6/

What makes Walker’s attempted crosses numbers more stark is his attempted passes per 90. As expected they dramatically increased under Pep rising from 48 at Spurs to mid 70s throughout at City. By comparison Mendy has attempted 64 passes per 90 at City and Cancelo 72 7/

To understand what Walker is asked to do at City we have to look at what he does off the ball and his defending.
Pep deploys Walker as his insurance policy. With City’s high line it is often Walker’s recovery runs that protect City from the through ball or ball over the top 8/

Walker is perfect for the role, his pace and strength are only matched by Adama Traore in the PL. Walker’s inverted starting position allows him to react to counters, using his speed to cut off attacks. Walker made 50% more ball recoveries than any other City defender in 19/20 9/

His starting position also allows him to chase down danger in the centre of the field when lines are broken. Again using his pace and strength to snuff out attacks. This example is from the Burnley match on Saturday 10/

Walker’s defending is often called into question. Poor decision making and concentration are common themes, ‘an idiot’ as Roy Keane put it.
The stats simply don’t back this up. Walker has only made one error leading to a goal in his time at City 11/

He’s only been dribbled past 50 times in the previous 3 seasons. For comparison Trent Alexander Arnold has made 4 errors leading to a goal and been dribbled past 147 times in the same period 12/

Walker has given away 2 penalties this season but this isn’t a recurring issue having only given away 2 in his previous 10 years in the PL.
City’s reliance on Walker as their defensive mainstay reached its zenith against Arsenal earlier this season 13/

Walker was deployed at right centre back to deal with the threat of Aubameyang’s pace on the counter. It worked well, City kept a clean sheet and Walker kept Auba quiet 14/

Pep has a very close relationship with Walker, he trusts him. He and De Bruyne are Pep’s lieutenants in this new version of City as previous stalwarts have either left or are older and less reliable. Which brings us onto one of Walker’s best qualities, his availability 15/

Walker is yet to suffer any significant injury at City. His fitness stands up to 3 matches a week and his pace and strength show no signs of waning as he heads into his 30s. The contrast with Mendy is there for all to see 16/

Expect Walker to continue to be used as City’s insurance policy long term but also bare in mind a tweak Pep made in the recent matches against Olympiakos and Burnley. Pep deployed a genuine double pivot, effectively playing 4-2-4 with KDB pushed up in the Burnley match 17/

In this set up the full backs are asked to provide width and it was noticeable that Walker played higher and wider. In theory the double pivot provides the insurance policy. It was a rare occasion where Walker was given licence to showcase his pace and he set up a goal 18/

However there were also occasions where Walker got into good positions and failed to produce. We know what Gary Lineker would say 19/

It’s something to keep an eye on in the coming weeks and if Walker is asked to provide more natural width on the right his crossing accuracy will have to improve.
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Thanks for reading 20//

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