Analysed: How Kyle Walker-Peters reinvented himself at left-back (2024)

Kyle Walker-Peters finished last season as one of Southampton’s standout performers, alongside James Ward-Prowse.

But he started this one behind summer signing Tino Livramento, who hadn’t played a minute of senior football before arriving from Chelsea, in the pecking order.

Despite Livramento’s excellent opening months, observers were surprised to see Walker-Peters consigned to the bench. There was a thought, shared by many, that Ralph Hasenhuttl could play the pair in tandem on the right flank, with the former Tottenham player at right-back and Chelsea’s former academy player of the year further forward.

Hasenhuttl hasn’t bought into this idea, though.

Of Southampton’s 15 Premier League games this season, the 24-year-old has started 11 of them. He was named as a substitute in the other four. However, Walker-Peters has found himself playing out of position on the opposite flank as a left-back.

“I must say that I was never questioning if Kyle can play there because, with his quality on the ball, he definitely has the skills to give him control for the game there,” Hasenhuttl recently said about the tactical switch.

“This is a position where you can score goals and this is a very, very tactically complex position. You need to be strong in attack and one-v-one defence, and you have to run a lot, play fantastic passes and be good on the ball.

“You need everything. It’s very demanding. You need to be quick but also need to be good at long-distance running. It’s a super-tough position.”

Due to Livramento’s excellent form on the right, Walker-Peters knew he had to show he could play ahead of another summer singing, Romain Perraud, in the left-back role.

Versatility is an attractive trait for a Hasenhuttl player to have, so the former Tottenham man proved to the manager in training that he is more than capable of featuring on the other flank.

Once he realised playing left-back was an option, Walker-Peters started doing extra work on his left foot to ensure his passing and crossing was up to scratch.

It hasn’t been an easy transition, though.

As The Athletic will go on to highlight, it took several games for Walker-Peters to start excelling in the position — particularly in attack, where he had to fight hard to ditch old habits, but now uses them as an extra weapon in his arsenal.

Walker-Peters’ first Premier League start as a left-back this season was against Newcastle United in August, a fixture that ended in a 2-2 draw.

Below is an example of how he wasn’t entirely comfortable then in terms of beating a man and then crossing with his left foot.

The space is there for him to attack…

…but he opts to take a couple of steps forward before trying a cross, which is blocked.

This was a common theme that day against Newcastle — Walker-Peters had space to run into, but opted to stay in his comfort zone.

Here, he receives the ball and has the option to surge forward.

Instead, he cuts inside — as defenders often predicted he would during his first few outings as a left-back — and sent his right-footed cross out for a goal kick.

And it was a similar story in the home game against Wolves, a month on from the Newcastle trip.

Rather than skipping past the opponent and attacking to his left, Walker-Peters decides to drift back inside. This cross was headed away.

Crossing is a key part of what Hasenhuttl expects from his full-backs, so it was crucial for Walker-Peters to grow in confidence in that aspect of the game, especially with Perraud also itching to play his way back into the starting XI.

The former Brest defender tops the list of crosses per 90 minutes when compared to his new Southampton team-mates, with Walker-Peters third.

However, the progress being made by one of last season’s standout players is notable. Take the draw against Norwich City in November, for example.

Here, Walker-Peters attacks the space and then goes to cut inside…

…but he is doing it to fool the defender, which opens an extra yard to his left and enables him to pick out Che Adams.

There was a similarly pinpoint cross in October’s win over Watford, this time towards Adam Armstrong.

And it’s worth highlighting this blocked delivery against Brighton in Southampton’s most recent game, which is a move he is unlikely to have considered during his early outings as a left-back.

He tricks his way past the oncoming challenge in a silky manner…

…before attempting to deliver the ball into the six-yard area.

And the following tables, when compared to his team-mates, show the impact Walker-Peters is having going forward.

He has nearly twice the number of successful passes into the final third per 90 minutes than second-placed Livramento does.

Walker-Peters is also completing more dribbles than any of Hasenhuttl’s other defenders, further displaying how he’s becoming more comfortable as a left-back.

Per 90 minutes, he is touching the ball in the opposition’s penalty area more than his defensive team-mates. This shouldn’t be a surprise given his volume of dribbles completed, crosses/corners and successful passes into the final third.

“He is coming more and more often in the position where he can score, and this must be a target for the future,” Hasenhuttl said of Walker-Peters’ attacking output.

“In general, you are seeing more players playing on the reverse side with their stronger foot, meaning they can dribble inside. This is more natural for attackers; Riyad Mahrez at Manchester City plays on the right and dribbles with his left foot, and Jack Grealish is on the left but dribbles with his right foot.

“It’s happening more and more often in defence too.”

As well as his work going forward, Walker-Peters has taken large strides to improve his defensive work when deployed as a left-back.

Switching from the right side may sound simple but everything will be in reverse when it comes to your positioning and body angles. However, the data shows that he’s excelling on the left.

There have been cases in games earlier this season where supporters were concerned about Walker-Peters being targeted by opponents seeking to exploit his first outings in a new position.

But he has shown himself to be prudent in defence, especially in one-v-one duels.

Going up against Tariq Lamptey in the Brighton game on Saturday, as the below example shows, he dealt with the threat of one of the most direct full-backs in the Premier League.

Lamptey looks to beat Walker-Peters but Southampton’s left-back isn’t sucked in and times his tackle to perfection.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he is seldom dribbled past by the opposition.

Here, against Chelsea in early October, he finds himself inside his penalty area and on the back foot.

Instead of diving in, he forces Timo Werner to go outside him and eventually blocks the cross.

And when Southampton beat Watford at the end of that month, the home side mount a counter-attack and Walker-Peters is out of position…

…but he uses his speed to get himself out of trouble and stop the ball being cut back to the idle Watford player inside the area.

It would have been easy for Walker-Peters to sulk about being left out of the team at the beginning of the season. After all, he hadn’t put a foot wrong since he joined Southampton permanently last year.

There would undoubtedly have been a time when the possibility of a role on the bench could become a reality, especially with Perraud joining the club to replace the departed Ryan Bertrand.

But he didn’t sit back. He did his talking on the training pitch and made it impossible for Hasenhuttl to ignore him, even if it meant playing out of position.

The result? A highly competent defender who can now be a quality performer on both the right and left side of Hasenhuttl’s back four.

Dan Sheldon is a football news reporter for The Athletic, covering Manchester City and Manchester United. He spent four years writing about Southampton FC, two of which were at the Southern Daily Echo. Follow Dan on Twitter @dansheldonsport