Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has sent a strong message after defeat to Bournemouth, insisting he had to step up at the Vitality Stadium despite fitness issues.
The Premier League champions fell to a second consecutive defeat on the road and across competitions over the weekend, as goals from Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson secured a 2-1 win for Bournemouth on the south coast.
That followed an exit in the Carabao Cup fourth round for Manchester City by the same scoreline away to Tottenham as Pep Guardiola and his coaching staff look to battle a wide range of fitness and injury problems.
With the state-of-play on the injury front appearing challenging coming into the meeting with Andoni Iraola’s men, the returns of a number of first-team stars were a welcome sight for all of a Manchester City persuasion.
Speaking after the defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday afternoon, Manchester City captain Kyle Walker has insisted that while he could have had “a little bit longer” recovering from injury, he simple had to step up as the first-team’s appointed leader.
“We have to be ready. I felt as good as possible. Sometimes the captain needs to step up when I could have maybe had a little bit longer but that’s no excuse,” said the 34-year-old.
“I was there for the lads and full credit to everyone out there – people were playing with knocks, kicks, bruises, pulls and that just shows the determination and what they want to do for the badge or the club.”
Walker continued, “We have to keep going because there’s a schedule. It’s a busy schedule, every three days for god knows how long. That’s just the way football is at the minute. We stick together even more, me first and foremost as a captain have to make sure that I rally the troops up and we all stick together.
“Those that are injured – be there for the lads that are playing; those on the bench – be there for the lads that are playing and be ready when you’re on the bench to come on and make an impact.”
Walker piled on the praise for his colleagues for their involvement in the clash against Andoni Iraola’s side, as he continued, “The lads that came on today did fantastically well and that just shows the togetherness.
“We’ve got a squad in there that is still a very very good squad so there are no excuses. Things happen in football, we’ve probably had a lot of injuries at the same time to key players. We need to take our medicine today and it’s something we can learn from.
“We’re very happy when we win and we win a lot of time but we have to take our medicine when we lose. We have a fantastic urn of games unbeaten and it was always going to come to an end. You don’t want it to come but sometimes you take your hat off to the opponents, say well done, and move on.”
It remains to be seen whether Walker’s performance on the south coast will force a change in Pep Guardiola’s mind, with Rico Lewis granted a much-needed rest against Bournemouth, with his own manager admitting that the teenager was suffering from fatigue.
