i don't think you have to nominate a replacement to say we can replace him, we arent all blessed to have enough free time to watch football from around the world so as to have a good knowledge of whats out there. What we do know is that we have an excellent manager who has got consistent high levels of performances out of some players that prior to his arrival seldom showed their top level, let alone consistently over a season. go back to his time at Southampton and how many of the players they sold after doing well there went on to replicate their form at their new clubs? not many really. so this suggests to me that we could buy a player not quite on Walkers level but of the same mold, with potential and have a good chance of ironing out the kinks in their game and help them step up a level or two.
Again, let me lay out the profile of the player I think we need at that RB position -
Essential qualifications:
- Generally good person - single most important qualification. Must be humble, respectful to his team-mates and club staff, willing to work and improve, and mindful of bad publicity when on his own time.
Other necessary qualifications:
- strong, difficult to muscle off the ball or beat in a 50:50.
- tall (or at least, taller than the average full-back) in order to continue our tactical advantage of being generally larger and more aggressive than our opponents.
- lightning-fast, in order to provide pace down the flank - pace we badly need, given that there's a relative shortage of it in the forward positions.
- indomitable work-rate, to get up and down his flank with ease and thunder away for the full 90 minutes.
- Ability to effectively understand and carry out tactical instructions - critical in a fast-moving, fluid system like the 3-4-2-1/4-2-3-1 we drop into and out of on a regular basis.
- Reasonably good technical ability, in order to hold possession and participate in build-up play going forward.
- reasonably young, in order to fit into the club's recruitment policy and Poch's personal preferences.
Nice-to-haves:
- Reasonably good crossing ability, in order to provide good deliveries into the box - it isn't strictly necessary because the option of playing it in low and hard always exists, but it would be nice for him to have a nice cross on him nonetheless.
- Familiar with the Premier League and its unique demands, challenges and playing style.
- from our academy, or possessed of a connection to the club more broadly.
With each qualification on that list, the pool shrinks. If we get to the last one, I'm not sure a player exists out there suitable for us, because even KWP is a bit small, even for a FB. Even ignoring the 'Spurs connection' requirement, there are very few RBs out there who tick the rest of the boxes and are also attainable targets for us. Maybe Rick Karsdorp, of Feyenoord. Maybe Benjamin Heinrichs, of Leverkusen. Maybe Djibril Sidibe, of Monaco.
But the best option remains Walker. Poch can do a lot of things with players, but he can't magically make them faster, taller or (significantly) more powerful than they already are (if they're past their growing phase, anyway). Thus, although it wouldn't be a terrible blow (given that Trippier can do a good job covering him and KWP ticks many, although not all of the boxes required for a Walker replacement)....it's a stretch to say that Walker is easily replaceable. He isn't.