I think at the crux of all this "Walker has fallen out with MoPo and now wants to leave talk" is whatever the REAL reason why he was left out of the FA Cup semifinal at Wembley.
Poch has indeed been rotating Walker with Tripper in recent weeks; very admirable and good use of squad - especially given the physical work Walker has put in over the season thus far and the Poch era generally.
After the international break we had 3 games in a week: Burnley A, Swansea A, Watford H
Who did Poch select:
- Burnley: Trippier (made sense, rotation, Trippier return to previous club, Burnley more defensive than other teams)
- Swansea: Walker (made sense, Swansea les good than Burnley but have more pacy, tricky players like Olsson, Routledge etc)
- Watford: Trippier (made sense, rotation, Watford less attacking on his side, plus he usually has had GREAT games against them as eventaully showed)
We then had a week to recuperate before we played Bournemouth at home; Walker started this one, and this made sense as Bournemouth have a good amount of pace and physical strength going forward.
Again we had a week's rest before playing the biggest game of the season vs the team we are chasing at he top of the table. Plus on a bigger pitch. You would have placed loads of bets that Walker would have started this game and maybe to be rotated in midweek away vs Palace (even though that would be more risky given their pacy forwards, you would expect us to dominate possesion a bit more in that one compared to Chelsea and Arsenal) before again returning vs Arsenal a week later.
But as it has turned out Trippier has been rotated so that HE could start both the Chelsea and Arsenal games.
The fact that Poch started vs Chelseas AT WEMBLEY without Walker and when we were already without Rose is the key to all this - Can anybody give a good reason for why Walker was not chosen to play in this showpiece game that IS NOT to do with a bust-up with Poch?
