Tottenham Season Review: Kyle Walker

Playing for Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham requires a few specific things.

His players require a commitment to their fitness, a willingness to “buy into the system”, and a strong belief in team defense. Kyle Walker has shown all of these things throughout the course of the 2015-2016 season, even earning himself another England call up along the way.

All four full-backs in particular have had a strong season. Of those four, however, Kyle Walker has had the best. While he certainly does have room to grow his game in the years to come, the 2015-2016 Tottenham season saw many positive things on a consistent basis.

First off, among Premier League right backs, Kyle Walker was second in tackles per game with 2.6, just behind Watford’s Allan Nyom. Walker’s average tackling success rate was just slightly better, however. As a full-back Walker’s first responsibilities are defensive in nature. Without taking care of business in the defensive third, there is no opportunity for the full backs to press forward. Kyle Walker’s average of 2.6 tackles per game does exactly that, he makes sure that things are cleaned up in his own half before making any kind of attacking run forward.

Kyle Walker’s pace is no secret. According to Talk Sport, Walker was clocked at a speed of 21.8 mph this year, making him in the top 5 fastest players in the Premier League. And it is exactly that pace that allows Walker to play the role of an attacking wing back. The full backs have lots of responsibilities and in order to cover the ground required to run with — and past– opposition wingers, a certain level of speed is required. Kyle Walker has that speed.

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One of Walker’s most valuable statistics this year is ability to play an important pass to an attacking player. According to Whoscored.com, Walker plays, on average, one key pass each game. Only Alberto Moreno, Christian Fuchs, and Aleksander Kolarov play more key passes, on average, than Kyle Walker. This again speaks to the versatility of Kyle Walker’s game. Not only is he instrumental in taking care of the defensive third of the pitch and helping Spurs to the best goal difference in the Premier League, but he also finds open seams to create at least one chance every single game. And that’s doing a lot as a defender.

The two biggest criticisms of Walker’s game at Tottenham, however, have to be his lack of accurate crosses and his often poor control. In a system like Pochettino’s where the wingers are asked to play narrow, it is the responsibility of the full backs to provide the width. With that responsibility comes the necessity to play in accurate crosses.

Now, with only one out and out striker on the pitch and nobody who is exceedingly large, perhaps Tottenham’s best option is not blindly whipping the ball into the penalty area. However, when it does happen it needs to find a teammate. Kyle Walker is playing less than one accurate cross per game and almost two inaccurate crosses per game. For a full back of his quality and the job he has been tasked with, he simply needs to do better.

No, whipping crosses in is not the most effective strategy, however when it is employed, it needs to be done better. For comparison, Ryan Bertrand of Southampton, Charlie Daniels of Bournemouth, and Alan Hutton of Aston Villa all play more accurate crosses per game than Kyle Walker. It’s a small criticism given the rest of Walker’s game, but it is still something that needs to get better going forward.

Walker also needs to improve on his close control. Again, playing in the system that Pochettino has created, skilled full backs are an absolute necessity. Walker is a skilled full back, but certainly has room to improve when it comes to his control, having, on average, one unsuccessful touch per game. This puts him 4^th among right backs with at least 25 appearances in the Premier League (author’s note: only 11 right backs have 25 appearances in the Premier League). Again, a small criticism and perhaps less important in the big picture, but tightening up his close control could open up a world of possibility for Walker and Tottenham in the final third.

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Overall Kyle Walker has had a magnificent season and will hopefully have a strong summer with England. For all of Walker’s good qualities that he has put on display this season — and they have outweighed the bad — the bad did shine through too often at crucial moments this season.

Therefore, Kyle Walker is receiving a “B” grade for this season. Again, his overall game is of a high quality and he contributed consistently to Tottenham’s first XI, however his ceiling is high enough that there is a whole other level that Walker can get to next season and in the years to come.

Final grade: B

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