“We need him!” – Pep Guardiola issues firm defence of Kyle Walker amid criticism over Manchester City performances | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has come out with a strong defence of his club captain Kyle Walker following a challenging afternoon against Bournemouth.

The veteran England international succumbed to a challenging afternoon at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday as Manchester City fell to a second consecutive defeat across competitions against Andoni Iraola’s side.

Defeat against the Cherries followed a disappointing performance against Tottenham in midweek, as Manchester City crashed out of the Carabao Cup at the fourth round stage via a 2-1 scoreline in North London.

A similarly under par outing on the south coast would follow as Antoine Semenyo among other players making light work of Manchester City’s defence and Kyle Walker upon his return from a knee issue.

But despite widespread criticism for the 34-year-old upon his return to match action, his head coach Pep Guardiola took a very different view of the right-back when reflecting on the game prior to returning to Manchester late on Saturday evening.

Speaking during the second-half of his post-match press conference at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday evening, Guardiola was keen to issue a strong defence of his club captain Kyle Walker following his return to action.

“Since he arrived this season after the Euros, he trained maybe four or five training sessions with us,” Guardiola revealed. “He can play without no training because his human condition, physicality that is incredible.”

The 53-year-old continued, “But of course he needs to come back to a routine of playing games and being focussed on what we have to do. I appreciate a lot the effort he has done to come back because in the last 16 days since the last game he played was with the national team with England.

“He arrived, didn’t train once except yesterday (Friday) for six minutes and made boxes for six minutes, and today he played 90 minutes against (Antoine) Semenyo, all the fast players – it’s not easy!

“Of course, we need him, he’s our captain, we need him and step by step, hopefully he can reach it!”

Kyle Walker continued to train with the Manchester City first-team set-up on Monday morning as the Premier League champions put together their preparations before making the journey to Lisbon for the UEFA Champions League outing against Sporting.

It remains to be seen whether Walker’s performance against Bournemouth and recovery after the outing will be enough to retain his position on the right of Manchester City’s defence, permitting further rest for Rico Lewis.