Walcott

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K

Kamran - KingKoscielny

Active Member
Jan 24, 2011
1,254
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38
London
Why is everybody suddenly so worried about the prospect of Theo leaving? Throughout last season, game after game, week after week, you were all calling for his head and asking for him to be sold. Now you're all ****ing your pants at the prospect of him leaving? Why?

I like Walcott, nobody defended him more than me last season, but I wouldn't be the slightest bit bothered if he were to be sold. He's a good player, but there are hundreds of players out there who can replace him adequately. We've even got a couple in our squad - Ryo and Chamberlain.

Theo is a good a lad and he can be very effective on his day, but he's not consistent enough. Maybe consistency will come as he matures, but at the moment, he's very up and down. He usually struggles against teams who sit back and defend in numbers, which is imo why he does better in big games when teams are a lot less defensive and play a higher line.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like us to keep Walcott, but if we do let him go for whatever reason, I would be far from devastated.

Isn't it funny how the idiots who were calling for Walcott to be sold a few months ago are the same ones who are now concerned about the possibility of him leaving?
 
Kamran - KingKoscielny said:
Why is everybody suddenly so worried about the prospect of Theo leaving? Throughout last season, game after game, week after week, you were all calling for his head and asking for him to be sold. Now you're all ****ing your pants at the prospect of him leaving? Why?
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Who? Not me. His contribution was great. He's even got some skills now to add to that pace. We should keep him.
 
I'd agree AoC could replace Walcott, but I'm pretty sure he isn't as good yet. Ryo is not able to replace Walcott IMO, maybe one day, but not now. I agree both have the physical attributes, but I don't think they have the experience yet.

I don't think that there are "hundreds" of players that can replace Theo. There may be some, but Walcott is english and that helps with the squad numbers. If you look at Walcott's assist and goal numbers over the last 2 years and the people who are roughly level with him, you see Giggs, Valencia, Nani, Mata, Silva, Bale. I don't think too many of these are for sale, or that all of them are getting better still, like he is.

I agreee with your point that our fans rip him to shreds and then complain when he might leave, but he is not easily replaceable. I think like any winger, he can be taken out of the game at a price. Last year teams took Walcott out of the game and that left RvP with enough space to lead the league in goals. People realize the contribution Theo made to RvP in direct assists, but they don't give him credit for his more indirect contribution to RvPs goal tally, keeping the opposition LB out of the way, and opening up a gap in the opposition CBs.
 
Walcott is still considerably better than Ryo and Chamberlain will be played down the middle soon enough.
 
TheBear said:
Walcott is still considerably better than Ryo and Chamberlain will be played down the middle soon enough.
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For me he doesn't have the balance, or the strength to be another Henry. He may get them, but I think "soon" is a little optimistic, even for me.

I don't think the "Owen-Hesky" 4-4-2 long ball model works that well anymore, it didn't work that well before, and playing Walcott centrally as a #10 or a box to box midfielder would waste his pace to a certain extent, notwithstanding that he hasn't shown me the defensive or creative talents required to play either role.

I think you see him in the Henry role though, but Henry is 6'2" and Walcott is 5' 7". Henry is about 180 lbs? and Walcott is about 150lbs?. That is asking an awful lot of Walcott to make up in talent.
 
ToledoTrumpton said:
For me he doesn't have the balance, or the strength to be another Henry. He may get them, but I think "soon" is a little optimistic, even for me.

I don't think the "Owen-Hesky" 4-4-2 long ball model works that well anymore, it didn't work that well before, and playing Walcott centrally as a #10 or a box to box midfielder would waste his pace to a certain extent, notwithstanding that he hasn't shown me the defensive or creative talents required to play either role.

I think you see him in the Henry role though, but Henry is 6'2" and Walcott is 5' 7". Henry is about 180 lbs? and Walcott is about 150lbs?. That is asking an awful lot of Walcott to make up in talent.
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re - read what I wrote.

I was saying Chamberlain will be played down the middle soon. He's an attacking midfielder. Wenger may keep him outwide for another year but No longer than that.


I think Walcott is good as a 'WF'. Despite what some on here seem to think its a COMPLETELY different role to an old fashioned 'winger'. He gets a good number of goals and assists and his pass completion rate is ever improving.

I also think Walcott (and i've said this for years,) will be a late developer. From a wide right or left position i think Walcott can get us 20+ goals a Season.(he's already getting around the 13-14 the Season mark) - which makes him one of the most effective wide players in the league
 
Ammaar said:
AoC isn't going to replace Walcott. AoC is better deployed as an attacking midfielder or central midfielder. If he progresses and suffers no long-term injuries, he could be a playmaker. He has the array of passing for it, he has the upper body strength, he has a quick turn of pace and good speed of thought - and he can make passes which carve open defences.

Even if you don't agree with me, at least we can say he is versatile because he has performed quite well on the flanks and he has done well in a central position, in my opinion.



Firstly, I agree that there aren't many players who can replace Theo or who complement our system as well as Theo, but just so we're clear - he is NOT better than any of Valencia, Bale, Mata, Silva or Nani. I do rate Walcott, but he simply is not better than any of those players. Perhaps his productivity is better than a couple of them, as his statistics may show, but statistics are misleading.

A while back I seem to recall you trying to say that Walcott is on par/better than Juan Mata. I seriously hope you don't stick by that assertion.



Except Walcott is not a winger. He is a (inside) forward who usually plays on the right hand side of our 4-3-3 formation.

Walcott doesn't get enough credit for pulling defenders out of position and giving fullbacks the run around with his diagonal runs and timing of the runs in between the CB and LB. He also doesn't get enough credit for tracking back - he has done a lot of defensive work for us and even when he's not looking so hot when he drives forward, at least he's willing to help the team by defending, too.
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I have to say - I thought we agreed on more than we disagreed to be honest. I agree with you that Ox is being groomed to play CM, but I was talking to the fact that someone else said Ox could replace Theo on the wing. I also admit that I used the term winger rather sloppily to refer to our wide forwards, rather than it's usual use for the wide players in a 4-4-2.

I also agree that in that role, Walcott gets to cut in to the old-fashioned inside-forward slot more often, and when he does it he is very good at it, and it might be good if he did it more.

I think Walcott is on a par with Mata, not necessarily because Walcott is "As good as" Mata, but because I think Walcott provides a threat that Mata doesn't (and vice versa). I really don't think they play the same position, in the same way, TBH. If we replaced Walcott with Mata we would lose some stuff, but we would also gain some different stuff too. If that makes any sense at all.
 
TheBear said:
re - read what I wrote.

I was saying Chamberlain will be played down the middle soon. He's an attacking midfielder. Wenger may keep him outwide for another year but No longer than that.


I think Walcott is good as a 'WF'. Despite what some on here seem to think its a COMPLETELY different role to an old fashioned 'winger'. He gets a good number of goals and assists and his pass completion rate is ever improving.

I also think Walcott (and i've said this for years,) will be a late developer. From a wide right or left position i think Walcott can get us 20+ goals a Season.(he's already getting around the 13-14 the Season mark) - which makes him one of the most effective wide players in the league
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Ah yes sorry - my reading comprehension deserted me. I think I read too quickly, and thought you were repeating (was it Hothead's old harping?) that Walcott should be played down the middle.
 
Kamran - KingKoscielny said:
Why is everybody suddenly so worried about the prospect of Theo leaving? Throughout last season, game after game, week after week, you were all calling for his head and asking for him to be sold. Now you're all ****ing your pants at the prospect of him leaving? Why?

I like Walcott, nobody defended him more than me last season, but I wouldn't be the slightest bit bothered if he were to be sold. He's a good player, but there are hundreds of players out there who can replace him adequately. We've even got a couple in our squad - Ryo and Chamberlain.

Theo is a good a lad and he can be very effective on his day, but he's not consistent enough. Maybe consistency will come as he matures, but at the moment, he's very up and down. He usually struggles against teams who sit back and defend in numbers, which is imo why he does better in big games when teams are a lot less defensive and play a higher line.

Don't get me wrong, I'd like us to keep Walcott, but if we do let him go for whatever reason, I would be far from devastated.

Isn't it funny how the idiots who were calling for Walcott to be sold a few months ago are the same ones who are now concerned about the possibility of him leaving?
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Agreed.

Walcott is easily replaceable.
 
Ammaar said:
I never claimed we disagreed on a lot of things. What I meant was in the context of Oxlade Chamberlain - regardless of if you disagreed with my view that he is best suited in the middle rather than out wide - at least we have a versatile player on our hands. It's a good problem to have, when you consider how many players we have competing for both of those positions.



I see what you mean and sort of agree, but when you compare their overall attributes and their importance to the team, I would argue Mata played more of a significant part in Chelsea's success, than Walcott's in Arsenal's ''success''.

I don't think Mata had a particularly strong end to Chelsea's season, but 12 goals and 23 assists is very impressive.
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I Agree Mata had a good tally last year. He has done better than I though he would.

http://www.london24.com/sport/arsen...chelsea_target_discusses_his_future_1_1456807

Looks like Walcott is staying anyway. Maybe we should make him captain. He seems to be displaying the class that is so obviously missing from RVP's behavior
 
It should be Wilshere or Vermaelen getting the captaincy in my view. Nobody else on your team comes close to being a leader
 
Yep, lets just appoint Jack Wilshere, a 20 year old, someone who has played only one season at a top level, missed an entire season through injury and most likely half of another, as captain.
 
The Zlatan said:
Yep, lets just appoint Jack Wilshere, a 20 year old, someone who has played only one season at a top level, missed an entire season through injury and most likely half of another, as captain.
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If you're good enough your old enough, that's something that has failed your club down the years.

Fabregas was captain at 21, only a year older than Wilshere now
 
Ammaar said:
I think what his point is, DL, is that as much as we highly rate Wilshere, he has only had one season at the top level and is most likely going to miss a season and a half's worth of football. We don't know if he will fulfill his potential, particularly if he constantly gets these worrying injuries.

Reading through several forums, quite a lot of people seem to think Jack will be our saviour and when he comes back, everything will be fine. But there's no telling how badly the injury and surgery has affected him and besides, a lengthy injury for a young player isn't good.

There's too much expectation from him and when he gets back, he has to improve his physical conditioning and train very hard to quickly get used to the intensity of the game again. He's been out of action for a while, so who knows how he will do when he comes back into the Arsenal team.
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Who would you recommend then? Koscielny is a good organiser but doesn't strike me as a natural leader
 
Vermaelen is the obvious choice. After him, I would look at someone like Arteta. Experienced and one of the more vocal players on the pitch also speaks well off the pitch. And, he was said to have made a positive impact off the pitch in helping build the team morale.
 
Ammaar said:
I don't think we have many solid leaders in the Arsenal team, apart from Vermaelen and perhaps Sczcsney (but not at the moment - his ego needs to be taken down a notch).

As you say, Koscielny is a very good organiser, but is not very vocal.
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I say give it to Squillaci :emoticon-0103-cool:

I do agree with you though. Vermalen if he stays injury free would be a great choice or maybe Sagna.
 
I say Arteta, his style of play keeps the play ticking and he always seems to be in the middle of everything. He has had experience at Everton as being captain and pretty down to earth as well.

On another note, Theo Walcott is fantastic, there are few players the board could sign that are better. On top of that, the price for these types of players is extortionate.
 
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