UNITED BID TO CLAIM KYLIAN
switching from right-back to play on the r ight- hand side of Southgate’s three-man defence after a season at club level in which he felt he developed hugely.
Pep Guardiola texted him before the victory over Tunisia to wish him well.
And although Walker gave away the penalty that let the North African side back into the game he feels Guardiola has added a wider understanding of the game to his blistering natural pace.
The Yorkshireman has always been quick. “When I was 11, I was timed at 10.52secs for 100m when I ran for Sheffield Athletics club.
“At 100m I think I’d be the quickest in the squad. Who do you think is quicker than me? Raheem? With his little legs?
“Over 50m he might get there – but not over the 100.”
Walker added: “I feel that the biggest lesson I’ve learned this season is knowledge of the game.
“That comes from playing experience – but it also comes from the manager Pep.
“I’ve gone home and studied games for hours – not about my physical attributes, getting up and crossing the ball – but just understanding where people go.
“Before if I had given that penalty away like I did against Tunisia I would have sunk.
“Against Ukraine once the winger got the better of me and that was it. I was down.
“Frank Lampard and Steven ven Gerrard picked me up and I can now look back on that game and say to myself, ‘ You are allowedd to make a mistake’.
“It’s how you bounce back from om things like that.
“This season I have had to learn arn to adapt to certain situations. Now I don’t sink.”
Panama trained at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium yesterday to adjust to the sweltering 32C heat and humid conditions.
Meanwhile, England stayed at their Repino base and won’t travel to the venue until this morning.
Southgate said it was sensible adding: “We never trained at the stadium before our qualifiers and it’s typical for teams when they play in the Champions League.
“It makes sense for us to train earlier in the day, be able to recover and then travel.
“It’s about the flow of the day and getting our training done to leave maximum time for physical recovery before kick-off.
“The heat is of course different in different parts of the country and we just have to adapt to that.
“There’s no physiological benefit to training in the heat.
“We’ve just got to cope with that and it’s important to keep possession – in that heat there may be moments when we can rest with possession.”
Southgate was not underestimating the side ranked 55th in the world.
He said: “We’ve seen already the difficulty top-ranked countries have had in terms of breaking down lower-ranked teams. That’s been a theme throughout so there’s no complacency in the way we’ve prepared for the game.” Manchester United are ready to battle rivals Manchester City and Real Madrid for teenage French star Kylian Mbappe.
The 19-year- old spent last season on loan at Paris Saint Germain before tying up a £ 166mil lion permanent deal f rom Monaco this summer.
But having spent £198m on Neymar last year, PSG are being investigated over financial fair play and face being kicked out of the Champions League if they are found guilty.
United are monitoring the potential consequences for PSG’s deal with Monaco and have registered their interest in Mbappe.
City have already made it known that manager Pep Guardiola would like to add the striker, who became France’s youngest ever World Cup finals scorer against Peru, to his squad for the new season.
United would be prepared to sacrif ice unsettled winger Anthony Martial in part exchange, a player they value at around £80m.
That would see United having to splash out £ 86m to secure the deal with Monaco if PSG pull the plug on their agreement with the Monte Carlo club.
Real Madrid are also in the market for Mbappe, rated the brightest young talent in Europe.
United are anxious to add Lazio midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to their squad but are refusing to meet the massive £ 80m asking price.
Juventus a re a l so involved in negotiations with the Rome-based club but like United feel the player is overpriced.