Kyle Walker is considered an underrated workhorse at Manchester City, but he also boasts one of the freakiest personalities in the team.
He might be swift and a pretty solid defender, but his aggressive playing style and unpredictability on the pitch sometimes even trick his own teammates.
The 32-year-old plays in his own vibes, making some questionable decisions with his distributions and then also redeeming himself with potential goal-scoring challenges and sprinting a long distance in a few seconds to avert disaster.
Walker was at his freakiest best during City’s gritty 1-0 win over Chelsea in the Premier League on Thursday.
The win took the Citizens to move five points behind league leaders Arsenal and back to winning ways after the embarrassing draw to Everton on New Year’s Eve.
Erling Haaland had a tough time in the game, getting involved in a lot of attacks but failing to find the back of the net.
In the end, it took a partnership between two second-half substitutes Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez, with the latter scoring from close range to give his side a much-needed win.
But one moment which was probably as the goal itself was one involving a harmless throw-in that Walker was ordered to take in the first half.
Upon receiving the ball on the sidelines, the Englishman was struggling to find potential options to get the ball to with his throw-in.
At one moment, he is able to spot teammate Bernardo Silva – who once again played in a central midfield role – to be sprinting towards him in an attempt to give him more options.
Walker ended up completely ignoring him and hurling the throw-in powerfully, straight to Chelsea forward Kai Havertz.
The throw-in was so sudden and unexpected that Bernardo was absolutely floored as he had to go down on the ground to avoid potential disaster to his face.
It was also possibly because the Portuguese midfielder felt that a defender was behind him to cover, not knowing that Havertz would be the one to assume possession.
Thankfully for Walker & co, the German forward was not really able to do much even after receiving the ball in a position when a lot of City players were on the attacking end.
The English right-back was able to recover quickly to add more depth to his backline in time as well.
The Citizens were able to regain utmost focus in the second half, scoring a goal early on and holding on to get a precious win at Stamford Bridge. Walker did his job pretty well, neutralizing their threat on his side and ensuring his side got a clean sheet.
The England international has made 9 appearances this season for City in the period he’s been available to play, having missed a chunk of the campaign due to a groin injury.
However, the former Tottenham player will have to fix up his throw-in technique and ensures that he calmly looks to find his teammates rather than try blowing their heads off with his vicious throw-ins going forward.
