Jack Grealish not often disappoints when positioned in entrance of a microphone.
The affable winger reduce by the guffaws within the wake of Manchester Metropolis’s Champions League triumph in opposition to Inter to pose an intriguing hypothetical to his interviewer Thierry Henry. Would the previous Arsenal and Barcelona ahead have been capable of “tackle” Metropolis’s jet-heeled Kyle Walker in his prime?
“All day!” Henry emphatically answered.
Jack Grealish turns the tables on Titi and asks whether or not get previous @kylewalker2. 😂 pic.twitter.com/M9FCBXiJqE
— CBS Sports activities Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) June 10, 2023
Whereas the Frenchman jovially shook Walker’s hand, the defender’s shaking head suggests he wasn’t totally in settlement. Is Henry’s overwhelming confidence misplaced?
Walker, 13 years Henry’s junior, didn’t make his senior debut till the 2008/09 marketing campaign. By that time, Henry had already moved on from English soccer and was busy profitable the treble with Barcelona.
Nevertheless, Mr Va va voom himself returned to Arsenal for a quick mortgage spell in the beginning of 2012. Walker had joined north London rivals Tottenham six months earlier and was already a fixture of the backline.
Henry solely made seven fleeting appearances for the Gunners, scoring twice – together with a memorable winner in opposition to Leeds United within the FA Cup – earlier than ending his ill-advised renaissance with a 4-0 defeat in opposition to AC Milan within the Champions League. Simply 11 days after Henry’s remaining look for Arsenal, the Gunners hosted Walker’s Tottenham on the Emirates.
Had Henry caught round for one more fortnight, the hypothetical duel between this duo may have been a actuality.
For all of Henry’s bravado in Istanbul, he has been reverential in his reward of Walker this season. After nullifying Actual Madrid’s Vinicius Junior within the Champions League semi-final, Henry gushed: “Walker is a beast.
“Every time you need to run with him, you may as effectively cease operating. At one level, he was manner behind Vinicius, he simply caught him, took the ball and checked out him and mentioned: ‘Bye’. In relation to that, he’s too good. He put [Kylian Mbappe] in his pocket within the quarter-final on the World Cup. He put a variety of gamers which can be really excellent in his pocket. It isn’t straightforward to beat him.”
Walker has the good thing about working in an period nearly twenty years after Henry’s peak, with the entire advances that the passage of time brings.
“Soccer all the time progresses,” Henry’s Arsenal supervisor Arsene Wenger as soon as opined. “The assault creates a brand new drawback, the defence responds. What has occurred within the final ten years is that the strikers have change into faster and faster. What’s occurred? The defence have responded by creating faster and faster defenders.”
Nevertheless, Henry may definitely shift in his pomp. Walker has been clocked at a prime velocity of 37.8 km/h (23.5 mph) within the Premier League throughout his profession – the quickest of any defender on document. But, Henry reportedly hit full stride at 39.2 km/h (24.4 mph) in 1998.
It must be pressured that these velocity figures solely supply a broad view of a participant’s swiftness and don’t consider the truth that Henry could be, theoretically, slowed down by the ball when operating straight at Walker.
No matter velocity Henry reached, it proved an excessive amount of for virtually all of his opponents. Towards each Premier League membership he confronted from the off, Henry scored. Sir Alex Ferguson devised particular ways to fight Henry’s skillset, instructing right-back Gary Neville to stay in his defensive place all through the competition. Henry nonetheless scored eight targets – and created one other 4 – in 14 top-flight matches in opposition to Manchester United.
Jose Mourinho accused Henry of solely discovering the online in “small video games” throughout his first season at Chelsea. The Blues gained the league whereas conceding a record-low 15 targets. But, Henry scored twice on their go to to Highbury in December of that season – no different participant within the division registered a brace in opposition to Chelsea through the 2004/05 marketing campaign.
Walker has confirmed a match for the trendy day’s finest gamers however Henry by no means met an opponent he could not get previous. In all probability, each Premier League greats would have loved some success over the course of a 90 minute contest. Though, as Henry conceded after his burst of self-confidence: “We’ll by no means know.” What a disgrace.
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