Kyle Walker has revealed that Manchester City have a player who he finds more difficult to defend against than Vinicius Junior.
The Real Madrid superstar is arguably the best player in world football.
As exemplified by his performance against Bayern Munich in Los Blancos’ 2-1 win, the Brazilian can even give a right-back of Joshua Kimmich’s ilk an extremely difficult outing.
Walker says Man City player is tougher to defend against than Vinicius
The 23-year-old is arguably the best dribbler in the world, as he has demonstrated since the 2021/2022 season where he set the world alight, winning the Champions League that campaign.
Kyle Walker, who has faced Vinicius Junior on several occasions feels Jack Grealish is tougher to face in his experience.
On BBC’s You’ll Never Beat Kyle Walker, he said: “You take Vinicius Junior to Jack Grealish, they’re both playing the same position but they’re two completely different players. Me personally, I would probably prefer to play against Vinicius because he suits my game better.”
The Manchester City captain explained the challenges a winger like the £300,000-a-week man poses for him.
Walker added: “Where Jack, he attracts more players to free up more players. So, all of a sudden, he holds on to the ball for that one, two, three seconds longer, everyone’s got to track to the ball because as footballers, we all love the ball and we all go towards the ball.”
“All of a sudden, then someone else is free and he lifts his head up and finds that extra player.”
Jack Grealish does things that go unnoticed
With how electric of a winger Vinicius Junior is in comparison to Jack Grealish, Kyle Walker would be expected to find the former Flamengo speedster a much tougher challenge.
But it seems like there is more than what meets the eye with Grealish’s game.
Especially from a full-back’s point of view, while the former Aston Villa attacker might not take them on, he will often drag them out of position as well as the opposition’s defence.
With Grealish’s patience in possession and expert ability to protect the ball, he seems to take defenders in areas they wish not to venture into.
Despite lacking Vinicius’ trickery and acceleration, the Englishman’s footballing intelligence seems to help him level the playing field for wide players like him.
The fact that one of the best right-backs in the modern era, Kyle Walker has made such a claim about Jack Grealish in comparison to Vinicius Junior speaks volumes of how cracking a player he is.