Kyle Walker > Alan Hutton / Dean Austin
Some of you are hard to please he has had some really good performances this season and the end of last season. I just watched the Norwich match again he did fine. Nothing spectacular but I wouldn't say he was any worse than average and he hardly needed to get forward because Townsend was a threat all match.
We have given up 1 goal now in 6 matches this season ffs
Shocking delivery on Saturday. He misplaced a lot of easy passes.
Other than that he did well, but obviously he needs to improve his passing.
I'm a little bit baffled by the Walker hate. I didn't think he was that bad against Norwich, average to good IMO. He certainly didn't deserve some of the vitriol spewed out in the match thread. Are Walker's misplaced passes worse than anybody else?
I read somewhere Dean Austin played using only his sense of smell. Amazing player
The stats say 98 passes, 14 more than the next player on the list, and 86% accuracy. Everyone else that started is between 88% and 92%. I wouldn't call that shocking, but his crosses are horrible and they just get worse if he has time to hit it perfectly.
Well that explains it then :lol:
Walker's crossing makes Lennon on a bad day look precise, hope one of the coaching staff can find a way of getting Kyle to find a teammate more regularly.
So far this season Walker has hit only 3 successful crosses from 18 attempts whilst Rose is 4 from 22. For comparison Baines is 10 from 43, Coleman is 6 from 14 and Evra is 5 from 13.
Last season Walker crossed successfully 28 times from 126 attempts, BAE 15 from 54, Rose 6 from 54 and Naughton 5 from 15. Baines finished the season on 106 from 353, Azpilicueta was 25 from 87, Evra 20 from 87.
Well that explains it then :lol:
Walker's crossing makes Lennon on a bad day look precise, hope one of the coaching staff can find a way of getting Kyle to find a teammate more regularly.
So far this season Walker has hit only 3 successful crosses from 18 attempts whilst Rose is 4 from 22. For comparison Baines is 10 from 43, Coleman is 6 from 14 and Evra is 5 from 13.
Last season Walker crossed successfully 28 times from 126 attempts, BAE 15 from 54, Rose 6 from 54 and Naughton 5 from 15. Baines finished the season on 106 from 353, Azpilicueta was 25 from 87, Evra 20 from 87.
The issue I have with these stats is that the likes of Baines worked in a team based on crossing whereas we at times had only 1 in the box and relied on either passing through teams or long range efforts. My problem with Walker is that he doesnt understand where to play the ball, given time or playing it blind.
Very small sample for Naughton but he the best success ratio (i in 3) out of all that lot. Are you watching braineclipse? \o/
I never thought Roberto Carlos was a particularly good defender - I've always been orthodox in my thoughts about defensive players. I do now understand that wing backs do not need to be the best defensively - they are deep side midfielders (for want of a description).
I quite like cultured full backs like BAE and Corluka but they would not fit into this system (it appears!) - perhaps why we've gone defensive midfielder crazy.
See your post no.1176 earlier in this thread.Steve: How did you pick the players you compared to? Just random players you picked out or were those the top stats for full backs in this regard?
At least Baines and Evra are probably among the best in the league, no? Comparing Walker to them for something he's obviously not particularly good at will always bring results like that.
This is certainly also a factor. Not saying that Walker is a great crosser, but style of play of the team will massively impact numbers like these.
Not quite sure what that's a reference to
I'm quite sure I've always been of the opinion that Naughton is better on the ball than Walker. But I do think Walker has more potential.
See your post no.1176 earlier in this thread.
Responding to my post about Naughton's highly impressive displays in the Euros this season, you replied that Walker remains ahead of him by some margin (my italics).
Hrrmph!
The issue I have with these stats is that the likes of Baines worked in a team based on crossing whereas we at times had only 1 in the box and relied on either passing through teams or long range efforts. My problem with Walker is that he doesnt understand where to play the ball, given time or playing it blind.
Steve: How did you pick the players you compared to? Just random players you picked out or were those the top stats for full backs in this regard?
At least Baines and Evra are probably among the best in the league, no? Comparing Walker to them for something he's obviously not particularly good at will always bring results like that.
....
Certainly if you want a high line with inverted wingers/wing forwards, the FBs must provide the wide attacking thrust and have pretty insane pace and stamina to bomb forwards while being capable of covering the high line. Even in the 4-2-3-1 we may move towards with a more traditional if deep-ish no. 10 in Eriksen, we tend to play pretty narrow with Chadli/Siggy and Townsend/Lamela both drifting inside.
So I don't really blame Walker that much defensively, outside his individual brainfarts a la Liverpool away. I actually like him in midfield given his eagerness to get on the ball (70+ average passes per game, highest in our team). My issue with him is in attack, where he can be really inconsistent and make some awful decisions or take a ridiculously long time to pick a pass. However I'm hoping that constant coaching will drill basic attack patterns in him so eventually he'll be able to execute at least some decisions on instinct.