Does anyone still rate Walker?

[Knarf44]

I admire those who want or think Walker and Rose can get better and just need time. Surely all but a blind man can see that's not going to happen. Neither have any football intelligence. Defensively they are naive and that's me being kind. Attacking wise the same, neither are very good at beating players, neither can cross a decent ball nor offer any real threat in the attacking half.

I refuse to believe that our new scouting system can not identify two better fullbacks than these two. In fact, we may already have a better fullback than Walker in young Kyle Walker-Peters. I hope Poch will be brave enough to try him as he certainly couldn't play any worse than Walker.

 

[thinktank]

I admire those who want or think Walker and Rose can get better and just need time. Surely all but a blind man can see that's not going to happen. Neither have any football intelligence. Defensively they are naive and that's me being kind. Attacking wise the same, neither are very good at beating players, neither can cross a decent ball nor offer any real threat in the attacking half.

I refuse to believe that our new scouting system can not identify two better fullbacks than these two. In fact, we may already have a better fullback than Walker in young Kyle Walker-Peters. I hope Poch will be brave enough to try him as he certainly couldn't play any worse than Walker.

Hear hear.

 

[sparx100]

I've kept rather quiet as i haven't wanted to jinx it, but after weeks of looking vaguely competent, today undid all that work and then some. We were woeful defending wide - it's always obvious that's our weakest area, whenever a team gets past our midfield and gets that ball wide, they're all but guaranteed to get a cross in far too often - but i said it at the end of last year, unless we're going to play a proper wing back setup, putting players who want to play like wing backs in the team just makes no sense. Granted, we don't have many options across the back as Davies still looks a little shaky and Dier has expressed how much he prefers playing centrally (and is clearly much more suited to it), so Walker is what we have to rely on. It maybe wouldn't be so bad if we could look to the other flank and find other options but Walkers weaknesses are almost identical to Rose.

They both bomb forward and then wander back, they don't close down fast enough, are often caught on the wrong foot by anyone who steps over the ball - i'm starting to get the feeling they only train against attackers who are cutting inside as the minute someone decides to run the line, assuming they aren't wildly out of position, they're sold one dummy and are left behind.

Early this season they both looked like they were getting their shit together, with Rose playing some of the best football i've seen him play and Walker seemingly on his way back to the hot shot who made that right back position his own a couple of years ago - granted, today is making me focus on these two, but is it worth me pointing out Davies' weak points? And he's our only other real wide defender.

Poch needs to hose the pair of them down and tell them they need to go away and watch replays of this game every single day between now and our next match. United didn't even try and take on our midfield, they just let us come on, dispossessed us and banged it over the midfield into wide attacking space knowing the chances were that Young, Fellaini or whatsisname were going to be already yards ahead of Rose or Walker. Simple tactic which removed our midfield and made Dier and Verts look like chumps.

I am not sure it is just their fault. Our two midfielders should have instruction to drop in should one of the full backs go forward. Neither Bentaleb or to an even lesser extent Mason do enough defensively to provide any shield for our defence. Don't get me wrong, Walker was bang awful today, but just because he gets caught high up the pitch does not put the responsibility entirely on him.

 

[Black]

I'm surprised it's taken people so long to see our full backs are very average. If you take away their speed they have nothing.

Poor crossing and below average defending. I haven't been impressed by either of them for a long time. Naughton was a much better right back than walker in my opinion.

 

[Hoddle&Waddle]

I admire those who want or think Walker and Rose can get better and just need time. Surely all but a blind man can see that's not going to happen. Neither have any football intelligence. Defensively they are naive and that's me being kind. Attacking wise the same, neither are very good at beating players, neither can cross a decent ball nor offer any real threat in the attacking half.

I refuse to believe that our new scouting system can not identify two better fullbacks than these two. In fact, we may already have a better fullback than Walker in young Kyle Walker-Peters. I hope Poch will be brave enough to try him as he certainly couldn't play any worse than Walker.

TBF to Rose though he has shown that he is at least capable of putting a decent cross in, all be it not consistently. I dont think we should just label both fullbacks as the same, because Rose is actually improving. Walker, well, I've seen enough to be frank, too many lapses on the ball for a team that plays with a high press. It puts us bang in trouble every time.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

You must be on a wind up?!? You sound exactly like the guys on SaintsWeb.

We are by far the bigger club.

Also, not only do we pay better wages than them but we are building something clearly very exciting with his former manager and have a much higher ceiling on what we can achieve (for reasons more than solely the obvious financial ones).

That's why.

I'm annoyed at myself for biting at this. I don't even particularly want us to buy Clyne, but it's just a silly comment to make.

Everyone is hurt and pissed off by today's result but the picture is so much bigger than just what we do this season.

It always was.

The first step was reshaping the squad and getting them to take on a new identity and mentality. Hopefully we'll use the summer window to finish that process.

As a result we were always going to massively inconsistent this season and It's a credit to Poch and his incredibly young team that in recent weeks they've made us believe we ever stood a chance of top four.

In no way does this suddenly make Tottenham Hotspur a smaller club than Southampton FFS!

It is a sideways move mate.

They sold all their players, have a totally new squad that was assembled within about a month, have missed their best attacker all season long, have a new manager, and are doing better than we are. They have had a far better season than us, they are higher in the table than us when some pundits predicted them to go down! And who is to say that he doesn't like Koeman as much or more than Poch?

This isn't a windup. I'm being serious. It's exactly like when 2 years ago we were saying we had more pull than Liverpool. Liverpool are a much bigger club than us, but because we had a good period at that time we were saying we had the same appeal for players. He is getting into the England squad with Southampton? How much more can we offer him. Based on the evidence, both us and Southampton are going to be challenging for the top 4 for the next couple of seasons.

We are the bigger club. I'm not debating that. But the way we are within this 1-2 year period, there is not much between the clubs, and a move wouldn't mean much for Clyne. It's not the same as him going to Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, etc. It's not impossible for Saints to overtake us, like we did to Everton 4-5 years ago.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

I admire those who want or think Walker and Rose can get better and just need time. Surely all but a blind man can see that's not going to happen. Neither have any football intelligence. Defensively they are naive and that's me being kind. Attacking wise the same, neither are very good at beating players, neither can cross a decent ball nor offer any real threat in the attacking half.

I refuse to believe that our new scouting system can not identify two better fullbacks than these two. In fact, we may already have a better fullback than Walker in young Kyle Walker-Peters. I hope Poch will be brave enough to try him as he certainly couldn't play any worse than Walker.

I'm really getting sick of this. Kane, Lloris, and Rose have been our best players this season. You can slag off Walker for some of his performances but what on earth has Rose done wrong this season? And he was our best player today again too, for what it's worth.

 

[prawnsandwich]

He had a bad game. But I don't think he is a bad player. MoPo's fault he was exposed today.

 

[fortworthspur]

it bothers me the way players are dismissed so quickly. he was pretty much first name on the team sheet when healthy under 5 managers at two clubs. he was actually decent in his first few starts after coming back from injury but has hit an awful patch and now he's "shit". He's young enough to expect him to regain the form which made him our best fullback since I dont know when. And a year ago it was Rose who was "shit". Im guilty of dismissing Rose last year, but he'd never shown the ability he has this year.

 

[kaz Hirai]

it bothers me the way players are dismissed so quickly. he was pretty much first name on the team sheet when healthy under 5 managers at two clubs. he was actually decent in his first few starts after coming back from injury but has hit an awful patch and now he's "shit". He's young enough to expect him to regain the form which made him our best fullback since I dont know when. And a year ago it was Rose who was "shit". Im guilty of dismissing Rose last year, but he'd never shown the ability he has this year.

Its the Internet, something is either great or shit

 

[MetalFace D]

It is a sideways move mate.

They sold all their players, have a totally new squad that was assembled within about a month, have missed their best attacker all season long, have a new manager, and are doing better than we are. They have had a far better season than us, they are higher in the table than us when some pundits predicted them to go down! And who is to say that he doesn't like Koeman as much or more than Poch?

This isn't a windup. I'm being serious. It's exactly like when 2 years ago we were saying we had more pull than Liverpool. Liverpool are a much bigger club than us, but because we had a good period at that time we were saying we had the same appeal for players. He is getting into the England squad with Southampton? How much more can we offer him. Based on the evidence, both us and Southampton are going to be challenging for the top 4 for the next couple of seasons.

We are the bigger club. I'm not debating that. But the way we are within this 1-2 year period, there is not much between the clubs, and a move wouldn't mean much for Clyne. It's not the same as him going to Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, etc. It's not impossible for Saints to overtake us, like we did to Everton 4-5 years ago.

Doesn't matter because im positive Clyne will be joining United in the summer. I still disagree with you about tottenham being a sideways move. We offer higher wages, we have a bigger stadium, we have a better training facility, our team has a higher potential and we're finally on the move to a bigger stadium. One good season for southampton doesn't change that...

 

[eddiev14]

It's exactly like when 2 years ago we were saying we had more pull than Liverpool.

The pull of a club only goes so far, ultimately these days you have to cough up the green.

It's why Liverpool signed Suarez for £24m and tied down their top players to £100k+and we fannied around for five years trying to replace Berbatov!

We offer much better wages than Southampton. That's the crux of it.

We are the bigger club. I'm not debating that. But the way we are within this 1-2 year period, there is not much between the clubs

What happens when, at the end of the season, all of these Southampton players like MS, Mane, Alderweireld etc ask for a pay rise on their 30k per week deals because bigger clubs will offer them more?

Where do they find the money to keep these players and, if they sell them, will they keeping finding good players to replace them. Without Paul Mitchell (who, God knows why, left them for us).

No, they will sell the players and the name of Southampton will ultimately be another one of those Cinderella Premier League stories. Like when Ipswich Town got into Europe.

Bottom line, they can't sustain this position with their financial muscle. We've been trying it for years and couldn't even sustain it with a team containing Modric, Bale, King and VDV.

It's not impossible for Saints to overtake us, like we did to Everton 4-5 years ago.

Look at how much more we spent than Everton though. As long as Mr Bean wasn't our manager it was inevitable we'd overtake them!

If you genuinely think that Southampton is a more attractive destination than Spurs over next few years then I don't know what to say other than

 

[MetalFace D]

I do think he brings a lot to the table, but no one can deny that he isint the most intelligent RB. I also believe that Clyne is much better than walker, he might not have the same pace but he does position himself better and can tackle better too, i honestly have no doubt that Clyne will start at RB for England for a while.

Also to add, I do hope we give Yedlin a chance, i mean he cant be any worse than Walker is right now, can he? Just placing him on the bench will probably scare Walker to play better.

 

[Kendall]

He was consistently and predictably rank in everything he did yesterday. It got to the point where our fans were ironically cheering any completed pass or interception he did make. Hes offered far too little for far too long now. I wanted him to come back from I jury for a final verdict, he got it yesterday. Cant cross, cant pass, cant defend, quick in all the wrong areas. Get rid.

 

[bubble07]

That game yesterday was a real eye opener for me. I know a Walker hasn't been playing well but he was so so poor. If he is up against anyone with speed he can't even use his speed as a strength

I genuinely think Rose is better and I can't believe I'm saying that. But neither are good enough for a team wanting CL football

 

[double0]

I'm surprised it's taken people so long to see our full backs are very average. If you take away their speed they have nothing.

Poor crossing and below average defending. I haven't been impressed by either of them for a long time. Naughton was a much better right back than walker in my opinion.

But you can't take away their speed, that's part of their game and it's a silly thing to say. Chadli and Townsend did not help at all, both should of been pressing the source of the long diagonal to Felliani

 

[faze_coys]

been poor for a long while now, even before his injury.... needs dropping tbh

 

[eddiebailey]

Walker will be back to his best next season.

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

He has the physical attributes to be a beast but he really is let down by his decision making, i have always liked Walker as a player (albeit very frustrating) but he really does need stiff competition just like Rose, he needs to be on his A game through the fear of being dropped /displaced...hoping that player will be Yedlin but like others have said he may be nowhere near ready.

 

[TheGreenLily]

Walker will be back to his best next season.

Playing for another club hopefully.

Got the young player award, been down hill ever since.