Tottenham: Ledley King Talks Danny Rose and Kyle Walker
Former Tottenham captain, Ledley King, talks about Danny Rose and Kyle Walker and how he believes they’re the two best full-backs around today.
After a brilliant display by Tottenham’s two full-backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker against Scotland, Eric Dier spoke about how both defenders are instrumental to the success of Spurs and England.
Dier mentioned how the two “offer so much both offensively and defensively” which is indeed true this season and ever since they first joined the club.
A quick glance at their individual statistics shows that Rose and Walker have contributed an equal amount of chances on the offensive half and are dead even on the defensive side of the ball during the 2016-17 campaign.
While Kyle Walker has played in 11 Premier League matches compared to Danny Rose’s seven, the main statistic that Walker overshadows his teammate in is the number of passes completed and passing accuracy; 473 compared to 336 and 81.4 percent to 73.8 percent.
Other than that, they’re nearly on par. Walker has six more crosses and chances created than Rose, with 27 to 21 and 12 to six. Despite missing four games due to injury, Danny Rose has been just as good as Kyle Walker has.
Defensively, they’re level. Duels won is even at 67 apiece whereas clearances are 36 to 35 in favor of Walker. More or less, there’s nothing to split the two apart other than Walker not missing any matches this season.
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Since Danny Rose and Kyle Walker first joined Tottenham back in 2007 and 2009 from Leeds United and Sheffield United respectively, Ledley King has been able to watch them grow up close.
And so far, he believes they’re the two best full-backs around.
“The way they’ve developed is incredible,” King said (via Tottenham’s official site). “Their speed makes them so difficult to beat in one-on-one situations and that means when you come up against quick players, for instance, Raheem Sterling in the [Manchester] City game, you don’t worry about that side of it as much.”
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“We’ve seen for the last couple of years the pair of them bombing forward, providing the width and they’ve taken it to [the] international level now.”
“They are two of the best full-backs around with everything modern-day full-backs need in terms of pace, very good one-on-one, energy to burn, high fitness levels and that ability to get up and down the pitch.”
“In my time, there was no emphasis to get forward for full-backs. It was about tucking in with the centre-halves and [being] positional, but it’s all changed now.”
“Modern-day full-backs have to be so fit and have the speed not just to attack with pace, but to be able to recover as well. A lot of the game is played through the full-backs and they are vital in this team. These two are a big reason why we’re performing at such a high level.”
That is definitely some high praise by Ledley King and he is correct about both full-backs being vital to how Spurs operate.
Because Mauricio Pochettino’s system has generally been a 4-2-3-1 formation since he took charge two years ago, he asks a lot from Danny Rose and Kyle Walker to provide the width when Spurs attack.
Combined, in the 11 league games that Tottenham’s full-backs have been together on the pitch, they’ve created 18 chances and delivered 48 crosses.
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They may be labelled as defenders on the starting XI prior to kick-off, but Rose and Walker are just as good offensively as they are defensively.
Ledley King said it best, in that Tottenham’s full-backs are absolutely vital to their success moving forward. And after signing long-term contract extensions they will continue to be important cogs in this well-oiled machine.