Reuell Walters: how to defend
In our exclusive technical interview, the ex-Arsenal defender goes deep on his process, comparisons with Jurriën Timber, and how to shackle the world's best strikers.
This is the second half of a two-part series on Reuell Walters. The first, the story of Walter’s life and career, can be read here.
Last November, I visited Reuell Walters at Luton Town’s Training Ground.
Walters - Reu to his friends - told me his story, on his terms: a tale that twisted through Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, mental health and breaks for football, injuries and recovery, and his current life in the Championship.
But it wouldn’t be a SCOUTED story without a deep dive into what a football player does on the pitch. So once the narrative dust had settled, I turned my attention back to the technical.
Alongside our Analysis Editor Jake Entwistle, I put together a short deck of insights about Walters as a player - the kind you might find in one of our traditional profiles. On the day, I put this deck to Walters. We wanted to hear how he approaches being a defender in one of the world’s most brutal competitions, and how to shackle a variety of attacking archetypes.
“Sounds good,” he says, shuffling forward in his chair. “I find this stuff interesting because during games, you have to make loads of mini-decisions and that's why analysis can be so important. You need to know who you're playing against.”
We were off to a good start.
In this technical interview:
How he feels about comparisons to Jurriën Timber
His relentless ball-carrying and attacking instincts
How he approaches defending three distinct archetypes of strikers
The players he’d add to SCOUTED50
…and more. Let’s get technical.
Reuell Walters feels like a modern defender in every sense. He’s an accomplished athlete, strong in the duel, comfortable across three or four defensive positions, adept at playing out from the back and can break games open with strong ball carrying ability.
While digging into some stats, footage and my own experiences of watching him, I noticed strong similarities with current Arsenal defender Jurriën Timber, and put that comparison forward during our conversation. Funnily enough, when a well-known agency approached Walters about representing him some years back, their pitch included several statistical comparisons to the Dutch international.
One moment in particular stood out when researching the 20-year-old: a powerful run in which he carried the ball forward and glided through the centre of the pitch against Cambridge United in February 2023 (below). This was a light-bulb moment for myself and Jake - of Monday Night SCOUTED fame - as we’d both just watched Timber complete a similar carry against Chelsea just days before.
With that moment in mind, I ask a simple opening question: what should fans expect when they see Reuell Walters on the teamsheet?
“Mistakes?” he says after a long pause. (I joke about editing that quote out of the final piece, but my journalistic instincts got the better of me - sorry Reu.) “To be fair, making mistakes isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It means I'm brave enough to have an impact on the game; maybe we can call them positive mistakes.
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