Kevin Kilbane believes although Kieran Trippier has developed at Tottenham Hotspur, the defender’s main difficulty in nailing down a regular first team spot is down to the fact that he has to compete with Kyle Walker.
The right-back, who normally plays second fiddle Walker, featured for the full 90 minutes against Millwall in the FA Cup at the weekend.
Tripper was deployed as a wing-back during Spurs’ 6-0 rout of the League One outfit, with the 26-year-old providing the assist for his side’s third goal which was scored by Heung-Min Son in the 54th minute.
The former England Under-21 international has thus clocked up 911 minutes over 12 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham in the present campaign, setting up four goals.
On the other hand, Walker has played a total of 31 games this season, providing six assists.
relatedNewsStory
And Kilbane thinks having a player of Walker’s calibre ahead of him in the pecking order is the only difficulty Trippier has at White Hart Lane as he struggles to feature more prominently for the first team.
"Kieran Trippier is a player I really like”, Kilbane was quoted as saying by Tottenham’s official site.
“I’ve seen him develop since his move from Manchester City to Burnley, I’ve seen him develop again since he’s come to Spurs and the difficulty from his point of view is that he’s got such a good player in Kyle Walker ahead of him.
“That’s maybe the thing you look at.”
Trippier, who joined Tottenham from Burnley in the summer of 2015, made 19 appearances in his debut season at the north London club, netting once and providing three assists.
