Rio Ferdinand slammed Kyle Walker and insisted he will “always be a liability at the top level” during an off-air discussion during Manchester City’s defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.
Ferdinand was on the panel of pundits for BT Sport’s live coverage of City’s 2-0 defeat at Chelsea alongside Joe Cole and Nedum Onuoha.
One Twitter user @StevieGrainger, managed to find a stream with all the audio from the studio and uploaded excerpts on to his personal social media account, including Manchester United legend analysing Walker’s efforts in stopping Willian in the build-up to NGolo Kante’s goal.
“Look at Kyle Walker, sleeping,” Ferdinand said on BT Sport. “Look at Kyle Walker. That’s why England – whenever he plays – he’ll always be a liability at the top level.”
https://twitter.com/StevieGrainger/status/1071471201573322753
OPINION
Walker’s recovery pace gets him out of plenty of trouble, but he is the weakest link in this outstanding City side. The £50million summer-of-2017 signing from Tottenham has been a mainstay for Pep Guardiola’s side at right-back and delivered some solid performances over the last season-and-a-half. But the two weakest points for the champions are at full-back, both on Walker’s side and on the left, even when Benjamin Mendy is fit. City’s style of play overwhelms teams, and there is a strong sense their defeat at Chelsea is a one-off because, as Guardiola pointed out afterwards, his side put the Blues to the sword even when suffering their first league defeat of the season. It is slightly embarrassing for BT Sport that Ferdinand and Cole’s off-air comments have ended up in the public domain – and there will be an investigation as to how it happened – but it could have been far more humiliating for the former England pair. At least, they were making sound football points rooted in logic.