Are 23% of Dream Team Euros managers making a mistake selecting Kyle Walker?

KYLE WALKER (£4m) is currently the most-popular defender in Dream Team’s Euros fantasy game.

The England right-back features in 23.4% of teams created at the time of writing and while there’s still time for the outlook to change before the Matchday 1 deadline on June 14th (7pm), it seems certain he’ll be among the most-selected players in his position once the action is underway.

But is he truly worthy of such immense popularity?

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Walker is almost certain to start for the Three Lions against Serbia and so it’s understandable that gaffers who think Gareth Southgate’s side will go far this summer believe the speedy defender is a safe and smart choice.

Even at 34 years old he remains among the fastest players in Europe and he has been a regular for Pep Guardiola during Manchester City’s trophy-laden years lately.

However, Walker rarely provides much attacking threat for England.

His goal against Ukraine in qualifying for Euro 2024 was his only one at international level in 82 caps and he’s provided just three assists in his last 41 outings.

This is partially because he has often been tasked with playing as a right-sided centre-back who isn’t supposed to stray too far from John Stones (£4.5m).

Dream Team bosses don’t need all their defenders to offer a threat going forward but those who don’t should be strong clean sheet candidates, especially if they’re at the more expensive end of the price range.

In this sense, each player is only as good as their team’s collective defensive ability.

England have a wealth of attacking pedigree in the current squad with the expected front four of Jude Bellingham (£6m), Phil Foden (£6.5m), Bukayo Saka (£6.5m) and Harry Kane (£7.5m) all heading into the tournament in excellent form.

But there are question marks at the back.

Stones, Harry Maguire (£4.5m) and Luke Shaw (£4m) are all availability concerns at this stage with the latter’s potential absence creating a serious problem at left-back.

No doubt this is why so many gaffers have put their faith in Walker, who is almost guaranteed to start, but surely there’s a chance England’s makeshift back four will be more vulnerable than usual?

At £4m Walker doesn’t come cheap and for that price a defender should either have some notable attacking attributes or likely to benefit from clean sheets (ideally both).

It may be the case that England’s defence holds up fine but managers should at least consider alternative options from other top teams.

To be clear, picking Walker is by no means a clanging error but whether he’s an optimum selection, worthy of appearing in nearly a quarter of all teams, is another matter entirely.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk