It is hard to fully assess Tyler Walker’s time at Coventry City thus far because it has been so stop-start, this is reflected in the fact that the minutes played in his first 50 appearances for the club equate to just over 25 sets of 90 minutes. From arriving at the club late in pre-season last year, injury and Covid set-backs, and strong form from his competition to start in attack, Tyler Walker hasn’t really had the opportunity to get going in a Coventry City shirt. While there is an argument that a genuinely top-notch player would be able to make a more compelling case for regular football than Walker has, his lack of momentum at the club cannot solely be blamed on the player himself.
There have been signs of promise with Tyler Walker, a reasonably quick and physical striker who can occasionally stretch defences but whose primary strength appears to be rounding moves off rather than contributing to build-up play. There have been a few decent runs of goalscoring, however, the biggest issue he has faced is that his competition appears to be able to do what he does better. Whether it’s Viktor Gyokeres and Martyn Waghorn (as well as Maxime Biamou last season) for their involvement in build-up play or Matt Godden in terms of being a pure goal poacher, there currently doesn’t appear to be a role within the attacking arsenal which Tyler Walker fulfils. That said, it isn’t easy to demonstrate what a player is capable of when they’ve only had one or two runs of consecutive starts for a team – especially, this season, where Walker has largely played 10-15 minute spells from the bench.
Whether Tyler Walker could do more to earn the faith of Mark Robins or the manager could do more to get the best out of a player who was signed to develop into a reliable goalscorer and asset for the club, 18 months into a three-year deal, it is looking like it may not work out for Tyler Walker at Coventry City. While not every signing can be a success, the model for this club to progress at Championship level is to invest in players of around Tyler Walker’s age and give them every chance to improve, succeed and develop into assets. That is why it would be foolish to write-off Tyler Walker before he’s been given a fair chance to get going at Coventry City, as having to take a loss on him as it would, for a number of reasons, make it difficult to to keep the model the club are looking to establish going. With the team looking for inspiration at the moment and unable to strengthen in the transfer market, there may not be a better time than the present for Tyler Walker to step-up and get his Sky Blues career up and running.
Sideways Sammy 