I notice theres been a distinct lack of delusion on the board so thought I'd rectify that! As the topic suggests do you think Walcott will be deployed as third or second choice striker this year. I may be in a severe minority but believe he can be somewhat like Javier Hernandez (without the aeries presence of course) and has proved to be clinical. Wenger also stated that money was not on walcotts mind when he rejected the contract do you think the striker conundrum could have played a factor?
I think Walcott is good where he is. Podolski has no trouble coming inside to create/score chances when it is required and having a big front man should give Walcott some knock-downs to run onto. I feel he can come inside and have a go as often as he likes. There is no reason to assume that he will get more opportunities as a central striker.
He definitely doesn't have the physical presence but neither does Torres or henry. I'm not by any means suggesting he's as good but pod seems to be defensively solid slogging away on the lw and Giroud cannot be expected to play every game leaving Walcott as the only option.
Maybe. I still might think of playing Chamakh before I would play Walcott through the middle. Having that big man in the middle does wonders for everyone else, and it means that we don't have to keep changing tactics dramatically.
I think Chamakh is finished at Arsenal personally. His desire to play as a CF was quite likely a part of his concerns, it will be interesting to how he is used this season. So far, he's been on the bench and Oxo is staking his claim for the right side of MF
Oxo and Gerv have probably locked down the RW position now, they offer a threat going forward, but they also work hard for the team, something Theo doesn't always do.
Yup, it would make sense to play Walcott as a CF. We're not like West Ham so it won't change our tactics too much. If anything, it will gives us an extra dimension. Gerv and Oxo have the right wing covered, Arshavin and Pod on the left. Who else would be a better option as a CF?
Verm? He's quicker than Giroud and can score goals. Then again this might be the stupidest idea i've thought of.
Yes, I would try to give him a go as a CF. But mainly against teams like Chelsea, Man City or Man Utd. Those teams certainly won't sit back against us and will leave space for Walcott to penetrate. Impossible against the likes of Stoke. Especially slow defenders like Terry or Vidic can be exposed by Walcott's pace. Only disadvantage I see is that Walcott won't do well holding up the ball or beating opponents in the middle. He needs to be fed with through balls all the time and he's very weak in the air. Having no Walcott (and Gervinho) helped a big deal today for playing some direct and precise football in the final third. Only the various crosses to Giroud were generally poor.
Maybe ? I'm not sure how much that would affect walcott's postion, but something is definitely keeping him out of the team atm
Why would Bould choose Gervinho over Walcott - one thing Walcott has always done consistently is help cover defensively - ever since that game where him and jenkinson ahd there falling out he has been strong in this area of his game. Despite what any of you think, my opinion is that Walcott is our best option on the right wing. Oxocube is still young and learning and makes mistakes. Gervinho has no end product as of yet but is otherwise very effective. Walcott can score, he can get assists, despite popular opinion he has continually improved since he joined us and he has better stats over the last couple of seasons than almost anyone in the league in his position. He has matured massively as a player and just because he cant break down 10 man defences on his own doesn't mean he is a poor player. His form against the big clubs - Tottenham, Chelski, Barca etc... has been fantastic. He is a quality player and adds alot to our team. I do want to see him given a chance down the middle, but i think the timing of those chances is important.
I know I keep saying this but Walcott doesnt tick a lot of the boxes for a CF. If you play him as a CF, then there is no point playing Ox or Gervinho on the wings because crosses are a waste of time. Walcott isn't going to hold the ball up at all. If you go 4-4-2 then you are going long ball, because without the extra man in the middle you are going to have to give up on passing the ball up the field. All in all it turns into a huge amount of change, just so you can play Walcott up the middle. He had better score 30+ goals a season that way, because it isn't worth it if he doesn't.
If Walcott played centraly we would just play more down the middle than out wide, he'd play off the CB - he's also better at holding the ball up than he is given credit for, but i understand the concerns of some that he doesn't have all the usual CF attributes.
I think one of the reasons we might not have sold him is that it would have made more financial sense to keep him... Thinking about it, it's likely that Soton had a fair few clauses put into his contract regarding sell on fees and whatnot, and considering we've spent the best part of 12 million on him, plus wages, I doubt we could have recouped anything close to the investment made in him, hence the decision to keep him (plus he's the face of arsenal atm)
I don't think you'd need to go 442 to play Theo centrally. He would force defences to play much deeper to stop space in behind, leaving space in the "hole" for Cazorla to exploit, and for Pod & Ox to exploit from the wings, coming inside & allowing the full-backs to overlap. Playing Theo down the middle would stretch the game & leave more space than playing Giroud does, and with fast wingers it would allow for very fast counters too - making teams leave an extra player back. Arsenal don't cross much anyway, and long balls wouldn't work with Arsenals lack of height - you only ever need to mark one or two guys max. I wouldn't change much, just work with Theo on his one-touch passing to he can play quickly with his back to goal, and turn defenders to get behind.
I think Theo would be good as a CF against teams with big lumbering CBs and later on in games when the oppo back four are tiring.
