Man City vs. Burnley: Kyle Walker ‘cannot handle an emotional game’ as he prepares to face “freakishly talented” opponent on Etihad return

Manchester City expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany has tipped Kyle Walker to struggle on his return to the Etihad Stadium where Burnley will face his former club in the Premier League on Saturday.

Walker completed a permanent move to Turf Moor in the summer after a memorable eight-year spell at Man City where he made more than 300 appearances and won 18 trophies, including six Premier League titles and one Champions League during a historic treble-winning campaign in 2022-23.

The England international, regarded as Man City’s “best ever right-back”, brought a shock end to his time at the Etihad in the middle of last season when he handed in a transfer request before joining AC Milan on a short-term loan deal.

Walker has since established himself as a first-team regular at Burnley, playing the full 90 minutes in each of their opening five Premier League games this season, but at the age of 35, the right-back is no longer the sharpest, athletic force that he once was in his prime.

McInerney does not believe that Walker can ‘handle an emotional game’ and the experienced defender is yet to take responsibility for his actions that led to his sour exit from Man City.

‘Walker cannot handle an emotional game of football’

Walker is expected to start for Burnley in this weekend’s contest at the Etihad and McInerney feels that in-form Man City winger Jeremy Doku will “revel” coming up against his former teammate, as he is arguably the “hardest winger in the world to face one-on-one”.

Asked whether a difficult afternoon could be on the cards for Walker, McInerney told Sports Mole: “Kyle Walker will be up for it. I think where he's at right now, and with his ability and so on, I don't think Kyle Walker can handle an emotional game of football.”

He added: “It depends if he's willing to have a lot of humility or not, which has never really been his strongest attribute. Kyle Walker's a Manchester City legend, but I think it's fair to say he's been a bit of a muppet since he left City.

“I think he let himself down last year, the way that he moved on during the season because he said he wasn't starting enough football, which was nonsense - he started most of the games before he moved. He just wasn't playing very well and there was a lack of awareness there.

“I still feel that Kyle Walker hasn't taken any sort of responsibility for the reason why he left City. It was entirely on him.”

“Freakishly talented” Doku will “revel playing against Walker”

Discussing the potential battle between Walker and Doku on Saturday, McInerney said: “If we recall correctly, many very good wingers gave him awful torrid time at City last season. [Kaoru] Mitoma in particular just made him look stupid. [Antoine] Semenyo had a lot of joy, lots of wingers did very well against Kyle Walker.

“Jeremy Doku is possibly the hardest winger in the world to face one-on-one. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Jeremy Doku, there's not a single person in the world that can deny that he's an absurd dribbler.

“He's freakishly talented one-on-one, so I do not see how, one-on-one, Walker is going to have a good time against Doku. I'm sure Walker's still got a decent amount of pace, but he was never the strongest anyway with (playing against players with) tricky feet. He was great against sprinters, but Mitoma caused him a lot of trouble last year because his footwork was so good.

“With the form that Doku in as well - he was excellent against Arsenal, excellent against Man United, excellent against Napoli, Doku in the form of his life right now, or the form of his Manchester City career at least - I think he's going to revel playing against Kyle Walker.

In-form Doku expected to start as Man City urged to make “statement” in Burnley clash

“Doku knows Kyle Walker, he knows how he plays and he’s a killer, he wants to beat his man. I think Kyle Walker is going to try and ‘big man’ it [with his] chest out and ‘I'm Kyle Walker’ and I think he might have a decent game, but he's not touching Doku if Doku's anywhere near his best, because Doku is just far too quick for him.”

Doku is likely to start in his favoured left-wing position against Burnley after he was rested and left out of the matchday squad for Man City’s 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town in the EFL Cup third round on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old Belgian has taken advantage of Man City attacking duo Omar Marmoush and Rayan Cherki nursing injuries, as he has contributed with one goal and two assists across his last three appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side.

Man City will be regarded as firm favourites to beat Burnley considering that they have won 17 of their last 18 meetings (D1), scoring 58 goals in the process, and McInerney hopes that the Citizens will come away from the Etihad with a “statement” victory.

“I think anything other than the convincing victory is a bit of a failure here for City,” he said. “You’d take a 1-0, of course you would, you win, but I'm expecting City to be comfortable and I'm expecting the players to see this is a chance to rack up a lot of goals and actually put a bit of a statement down.”

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