Walcott was much maligned in his first few years at Arsenal. He was accused of not having a football brain - utter rubbish in my opinion. After Sven's choice to take him to the world cup and not use him, Walcott then suffered a string of injuries which hampered his progress. He also has had to adapt to playing a position that he considers not to be his natural one. Whilst he still has ambitions to play as a CF, I think Walcott has made the RW position his own both for Arsenal and England. His performace for the national team last night was really good. I think Walcott dererves a lot of credit for simply getting his head down and playing his game, despite the critics that have tried to run him down. He is still only 22 years old and has got a great career ahead of him - Well done Theo
I hope he gets his chance, but in a 4-3-3 there's no way he's going to displace RVP. I'd like to see us play 4-4-2 from time to time with RVP sitting just behind Walcott.
I thought Theo looked blistering last night. I found it strange when the commentator said ''all he has is his hatrick against Croatia, apart from that he's not done much compared to John terry who has bagged 6 goals for England'. What a strange comparison with an even stranger centre half. In my opinion Theo was a constant threat and made sweden think twice before comming forward with their attacks.
Agreed and unsurprised that the commentator was licking John Terry's arse. Walcott also tracks back well and defends and that makes him a really valuable player on the right.
I am certainly not Theo's beiggest fan. I do think he is a good player, but he is inconsistent and still often makes the wrong choices. However, he is always a threat and has a good shot on him when he makes the right choice to shoot (similar to Henry running through and 'passing' it into the bottom corner). Opposition teams are scared of his pace and rightly so. This frees up other players who will often shine because of his pace. He also now tracks back really well and against Spain really protected the RB. BUT (there is always a but), I do not think he is good enough for Arsenal and do not think he would be that good in the middle. He doesn't have the strength or intelligence to play as the main striker. Henry was strong and normally made the correct choice of when to pass and when to shoot. Theo doesn't. Theo has been plagued with injuries and maybe when he has a consistent run in the side, his confidence will improve and so will other attributes of his game, like crossing and free kicks, which he is not the best at.
I do agree that he brings a lot to the team as reflected in recent comments by Wenger and RVP but I still think that he could do more sometimes. I think it was against Sunderland when he really could have made his speed count only to pick the wrong ball on three different occasions when the right one would have almost certainly resulted in a goal. I do hope he improves this area of his game because he really could be a match winner if he did.
As much as we can talk about how well Theo did last night. As Arsenal fans we look to our players in national teams to see how they play. The ITV pundits, basically lauded Kyle Walker for what was a pretty solid defensive display.. But not once did they truly praise Theo on his amazing defensive work, as well as his attacking threat. If you watch the first half back, you had basically two Centre Mids, and two left wings (Barry being the 2nd), alot of the England team was skewed to the left side of the pitch. This gave Theo little opportunity for give and go's and any real backup to help England penetrate on the right hand side. This coupled with Sweden essentially double marking Theo all half makes his performance seem weaker to the general populous. Theo created his opportunities very very well, England attacking from the left basically overwhelmed Sweden by numbers alone, and is a lot easier to say well the left winger must of been doing a better job. But yes, re watch the first half you will see when attacking from the left you had 4-5 people trying to work together to create an opportunity. On the right it for nearly every opportunity was just Walker and Walcott trying to create something. Also I laughed when I think it was Andy Townsend said, Jones used the ball very well vs Spain.. hahaha he ****ed up every opportunity he had to play through balls. The guy just isnt a CM or in any position where you need to play the ball
I fink if Theo gets to be a full player like Alan Sunderland's hairstyle on your avatar he will be the bestestertest of all players.
Townsend seems to have a dig at Theo every chance he gets. He does chuck in faint praise sometimes but is always ready with the next cliche. Of course, Tottenham/Man U players or England hasbeens never get this for some reason, I'm sure it can't be true but it almost looks like he has an agenda
Totally agree with your first paragraph, totally don't agree with your second. Every time Theo has played in the striker's role he shows remarkable similarities to Henry. I think he looks fantastic as a striker and he has scored goals the few times he has played there. I'd love to see him played as a striker. As a winger he is pants, his delivery is awful and his decision making is suspect. When on his game he puts the fear of God in defenders ... all too often he is not on his game though. Andy Townsend is an arse licking, biased, prick, I can't stand the knobber.
