- Jul 20, 2011
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I agree that some of the RBs linked to us could well be worse than KWP. I've been surprised that we've never given him a proper chance as our back-up RB (at best, he was 3rd choice RB & 3rd choice LB, with most of his playing time out of position at LB). My guess is that he hasn't shown enough in training to impress our managers.Boldly, and quite possibly naively, I've come to the conclusion that Kyle Walker-Peters should be our first-choice right-back next season.
Statistically, he played 22 games in 2019/20, and was on the winning side 13 times. In half a season, he produced 5 assists, finding his man with 20% of his crosses (for context, Trent Alexander-Arnold managed 23%), and he drew only 2 yellow cards.
Considering the form he showed during his loan spell with Southampton, he's better than any right-back we've been linked to as far as I can tell. He's young, English, and has come off a spell that would interest the club if he wasn't already on our books. He knows the club and the players well, and having finally had a run in a top-flight team, he knows the Premier League.
I've seen nothing from Max Aarons that has impressed me more than what Walker-Peters has produced since January (I realise this is the exact type of statement that bites people in the arse), and unless we have an ace up our sleeves, it strikes me as sensible to let him grow into a team, without a clear and obvious long-term right-back, throughout the 2020/21 season.
His stats are reasonable, but don't give me any confidence that he'd be an improvement on Aurier. Aurier's stats are similar (played 42 games, 8 assists and 2 goals). I'd sooner go by the combined opinion of Mourinho and Poch than stats. Bale was on the winning side 0 times in his first 24 games for Spurs, so I'm glad we ignored stats on that occasion!