- Kyle Walker is finding life difficult in Italy after a promising start to life in Serie A
- The Man City loanee’s frustration is clear as he lays into Portuguese team-mate
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Kyle Walker‘s honeymoon period at AC Milan is over and the Man City‘s loanee’s frustrations got the better of him during Sunday’s 2-1 defeat at Napoli.
The 34-year-old hit the ground running in Italy with three starts, four-and-a-half hours of football and three unbeaten matches for AC Milan, during which he conceded just twice.
His performances – and Milan’s results – have since dipped, however. Walker was taken off at half-time against Verona and was dropped to the bench for the next Serie A match, a 2-1 defeat by Lazio.
In his latest game, against Antonio Conte‘s Napoli, he was again hooked (in the 79th minute) and given a rating of 4.5 by Sempre Milan.
They wrote of his performance: ‘The whole defence was poor, but he was certainly at fault on the second goal, following [Alessandro] Buongiorno’s run fully – thus playing [Romelu] Lukaku onside v despite the fact that Milan had a high line at the time. A big mistake for a player with his experience. He had a couple of decent runs forward but then couldn’t get the crosses right.’
Milan found themselves 2-0 down by half-time, thanks to strikes from Matteo Politano and Lukaku. As the players emerged from the tunnel, Walker was caught on camera giving a dressing down to team-mate Joao Felix.
Kyle Walker was given a 4.5 rating by Sempre Milan for his performancein the defeat by Napoli
Joao Felix has not scored in the 10 appearances since making his debut for the Rossoneri
Kyle Walker (right) has some stern words for Joao Felix as the players emerge from the tunnel
Felix also joined Milan on loan in January – from Chelsea – and scored on his debut but the forward has failed to find the back of the net in 10 appearances since.
And Walker suggested the Portuguese was overdoing things when he said ‘Pass the ball, we are not Messi.’
Felix played just 10 minutes of the second half before he was taken off by manager Sergio Conceicao.
Milan, seven-time European champions, sit way off the pace in Serie A where they are ninth and a massive 20 points off league leaders and Inter.
They face their city rivals in Wednesday’s Coppa Italia semi-final first leg in what will be a chance for the Rossoneri, Walker and Felix to get their season back on track.
