Walcott has come into alot of critisism in his time at Arsenal, from his 2006 World Cup call-up and early hype everyone has expected him to reach a very good level very quickly. He has been poor at times but if you look at how well he has done you'd be suprised i'm sure. Someone posted a link to a good article about Walcott on another thread and it mentioned Walcott scores in the big games (Tottenham, Chelsea, Barcelona etc..). He is a player who can change a game with his pace and he scores some good goals. He also scored 13(?) goals last season and has developed a good understanding with RVP this season. He is being played out of position and doing well, he opens up space for others and makes good runs off the ball, he has been off form but he can score good goals even from his wide position. If he was playing centrally ahead of RVP he would be great imo. He is being backed by Ian Wight, Robin Van Persie and Arsene Wenger who have all said people are too tough on him. RVP enjoys playing with him and this makes hm important to the team. On top of this the Barca team including Messi and Pep said he was the threat, the player who could pin them back, the player they feared would score against them. He has had some fantastic games, he is out of position, he is only 22 and when these things start to go his way (gets a little more experienced, plays more centrally) i'm sure we will see how capable he really is. Until then i think everyone needs to get off his back and give him support as he develops. He can still be that great striker we all hoped for when he came to the club. And he is still a useful player to have.
I feel sorry for him as nothing he can do seems to be right. I appreciate the fact that he sometimes makes mistakes but I feel some individuals (fans) are still stuck the invincible era of thinking and expecting perfection. I think he is still developing and will continue to improve with time and experience.
As I said in another thread; He has one less goal and one less assist than Mata this season. Yet Mata is brilliant and Walcott is useless. Slightly different positions, but I don't think you can say that Mata is much less attacking than Walcott in the Chelsea system.
Not sure what your point is, perhaps the Chelsea fans think Mata is crap. I'm sure if Mata played for us, he would be labelled useless by our fans inside a week, every other player seems to be..
Sorry Ammaar but you've got this one wrong. The stats are a measure of how effective Walcott is, he has one of the best assist records this season and whilst a lot of his chances don't come off, you have to remember that he is involved in more creative play than most other players. For example another winger might only be involved in 3 or 4 creative chances in a game and his crosses are successful - 100% pass completion, but the chances may not be converted. Walcott will typically be involved in 8-10 creative chances in a game, 4-6 might not come off, but a least one usually leads to a goal, or he may score himself. People concentrate too much on the chances that don't come off and not enough on the ones that do. afcftw is spot on - Walcott is a really important player, the fact that RVP says so too and names him as being instrumental in creating the chances that he scores should be enough to demonstrate to people where his worth lies. Plus you have to remember that he is only still 22 and has a lot more to come, the most useful thing for him in this development at the moment would be for the fans to get behind him and back him, instead of constantly getting on his back. I don't agree with those who say he should be sold at all. If we did we would undoubtedly weaken our team, it would pile the pressure on Oxo to perform in every game, and then what? He'd inevitabely hit a poor run at some stage and you'd all be clamouring for him to be sold. Far better to recognise your assests and support them to do well imo.
Stats are blinding, please do not base your argument on stats, they can be used to distort ANYTHING. I don't need stats to tell me Walcott can't cross the ball, or he has a **** first touch a lot of the time or he clueless a lot of the time when played on the wing. What epitomises Theo Walcott was his game against Spurs, a first half where frankly, he didn't even look like a footballer, let alone a professional footballer and a second half where he mesmerised and destroyed opponents. This inconsistency is the problem I would suggest most fans have with Walcott, he goes missing for 5 games then has 1 good game. If we hope to become a force again we cannot afford to have so many inconsistent players in our team. So most of what I have read here is bull crap. BUT I do believe that Walcott played in the correct position would be phenomenal, I really do. As a winger, I'd be happy for us to get rid, all he has is pace and doesn't use it often enough. But if we can get him further forward, like he was in the 2nd half against Spurs, the REAL Walcott will emerge. As for what Barca said about him, whatever
I tend to agree, but against certain teams he can terrify them on pace. As a regular starter we cannot afford a player delivering once in 5 games. And our tippy-tappy style tends to pass him the ball our side of the defender, instead of chipping it over the top for him to race after.
PNEawf and Hothead have summed it up. The key word is consistency. He does produce top performances from time to time but not nearly as frequently enough for a player who has been at the club for as long as he has. However I do think that now the fans should bite their tongue if Walcott has a slow start today and get behind him, it's counter-productive to do otherwise. My position on Walcott's future remains clear: His occasional top performances would be enough to command a decent transfer fee which could be put towards a top talent like Hazard who I think would contribute a lot more to our overall play and teams would start to fear us again. Looking back at the highlights of the Spurs match the first half (apart from that nice touch to feed RVP) his control was awful for a professional footballer, if he played upfront he would need the ability to control the ball at pace and make a split-second decision, not his strong point - Not good enough.
He is inconsistent, but there is still a lot that he does for the team that isn't always appreciated. RVP said it himself, he scores so many because Walcott creates them for him. PLus he scores important goals. What more do you want from a winger ? His first touch is '****' Do me a favour - we're you watching the game against Spurs? I'd suggest you watch his 2nd goal again and then tell me his touch is '****' Walcott is only going to get better, those who are calling for him to be sold are off their heads in my opinion.
To be honest, if you put david beckham in his peak on our wing, and pay the opposition not to tackle him while he crosses, he wouldn't get much more. occasionally RVP is in the box, thats it, Thats why Lennon looks better in terms of crossing etc, alot of spurs players dive in the box and they have a few tall players to get the header
Given that we will have to spend maybe 40M on Hazard, probably a higher wage than Walcott, and he still has to show he can adapt to the epl - yes.
I wouldn't have thought it would be 40m. Maybe in the 25-30m bracket. I think we could get a decent fee for Walcott too. Total net spend: around 15m
I think Walcott has alot to offer but what really pees me off is the rumour of him wanting 80K per week. At the moment he has done nothing to justify this sort of demand. If he was banging in goals left, right and centre then fair dues he might have a point but at the moment hes not. I would keep him and i also think the crowd need to get behind him too. Remeber during his early years the crown would shout Theooo Theooo that alone would give him confidence. Support him not boo him.
Walcott is a confidence player. He gets scrutinised and criticised far too much. He can be infuriating I agree but he can also be unplayable. Keep the faith, If he can add consistency to his game he'll be the most effective wide player in the league. (he already out-performs lennon, downing, young, valencia, nzogbia, bellamy, malouda but does'nt get the credit he deserves)
this raises 2 questions, the first being, why is he crossing the ball if there isn't anyone in the box to receive it and second why if only RVP is in the box do his crosses go nowhere near their intended target ???
