Manchester City gutted a vast amount of experience from the squad this summer.
Several key players from that historic 2022/23 campaign departed as Ederson, Kyle Walker, Manuel Akanji, Jack Grealish, Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan left the Etihad Stadium for pastures new.
It will take some time for Pep Guardiola to handle this squad overhaul – a point supported by the fact Manchester City have lost two of their opening three Premier League games this season.
However, one player has taken no time whatsoever to shine at his new club as Walker impresses insiders at Burnley.
Jacob Bruun Larsen heralds Kyle Walker
After a tough 2024/25 campaign in which he also struggled on loan at AC Milan, the England international was sold to Burnley back in July for a measly sum of just £5m.
Walker has helped Burnley to one win from three Premier League outings so far this season – the same amount as Manchester City – and his teammate Jacob Bruun Larsen has been left very impressed.
Kyle Walker in action for Burnley during a Premier League clash against Sunderland
Photo by Lewis Storey/Getty Images
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The Denmark international was quoted by the Burnley Express as saying: “Oh, massive, massive (impact). First of all, he’s ridiculously fast, and his speed and his experience is massive, and he’s a quality, quality player, I would even say he could be our best player, he’s going to be very, very important, and it’s massive to have a player like that in your group, because he’s obviously experienced everything, and he’s still fit, he can still play.
“I’m just going to say that I’ve never trained against a better defender than him in training, where you just feel like, okay, I really need to be at my absolute best if I need to have a chance against this guy, and he’s been very, very good. Obviously it’s still early stages, so that will just hopefully go up in terms of his quality, and I think the younger lads try to learn so much from him as well, and myself included. It’s been nice to see, okay, even at 35 you can still be at that level, and that is impressive.”
Walker has played every single minute of the Premier League season for Burnley so far, which is testament to his fitness at the age of 35.
Manchester City still need to replace Kyle Walker
Guardiola moved away from using unorthodox options at left-back this summer when signing a natural option for the role in Rayan Ait-Nouri, and the same needs to happen at right-back.
Manchester City were linked to Wesley, Andrea Cambiaso and other options throughout the summer, but have opted to trust Rico Lewis and Matheus Nunes to share the responsibility so far this season.
Lewis started the first two games, but was replaced by Nunes after a poor display in the 2-0 defeat against Tottenham.
However, the Portugal international was then involved in a 2-1 loss at Brighton.
That is not to say Nunes was solely at fault for this defeat, but it is clear that even Guardiola has little idea about who is best to use in the right-back position at the moment as Walker impresses at Burnley.