Theo Walcott: Page 116 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Theo Walcott

Bold Tone

Both Theo and Sagna favour the straight forward "give and go" and do not play the difficult/risky pass often enough. That's probably why their combination play is so unimaginative.
It's a shame as the rest of the squad, bar Szcz, Gervinho and Merte, are all fantastic passers employing sophisticated angles on a lot of their short passes.
I've often wondered why Theo hasn't been tried consistently on the left where he could cut in have the shooting option on his right foot.

Qwiss

He's too predictable on the left. At least on the right he stays wide sometimes. On the left the FB knows he'll cut in every single time. Too easy.

Clrnc

I would love us to have dribbly wingers like Bayern who keeps cutting in. Provides so much options and confuses defence.

Not many players like those though in world football that's as good and available.

Bold Tone

I think the opposite.
Orthodox wingers, like Valencia, would help our strikers no end as well as freeing up the congested midfield.
Never going to happen as i realise Wenger deliberately plays this system with the fullbacks supposed to provide the width.
Problem with it is finding the right balance between FBs who can attack (Santos) and defend (Sagna).
Sagna can defend but will never be a good attacker so, i think, we need Theo to play like a proper wide man in front of him.

Kurtz

Our players don't get into the box enough for crossing/proper widemanism to work. Its usually Giroud or short Caz bursting in there but no one else. This can be easily rectified; however I believe Wenger tells players not to get in the box on purpose. He's afraid of counters...I think.

MistaT

Can you imagine Theo crossing with his left foot 😆

Patters

I never thought of Theo as particularly one footed, but you're right - he's not comfortable taking anything on his left foot.

He would do a good job as a central striker IMO as long as there's someone with him. But he can stay out on the right. He's basically a striker there anyway. 30 goal season coming up. The new Bale. It's happening lads.

Kurtz

11 goals last season and 21 this season while he was sometimes on the bench and not performing for large stretches. He could very well explode for 30 next season. Be prepared for "he's the best in the world for me" comments on match of the day.

Burnwinter

Be prepared you say?

girds loins with suspension-of-disbelief device

Clrnc

Kurtz wrote:
11 goals last season and 21 this season while he was sometimes on the bench and not performing for large stretches. He could very well explode for 30 next season. Be prepared for "he's the best in the world for me" comments on match of the day.

Don't think so. He has always been like this. Good stats but performance wise leaves much to be desired.

Unless he bulks up and gets those explosiveness like Bale.

asajoseph

I like him on the wing. He's effective there, and has proven to be so consistently over a number of seasons.

MistaT

Well played Theo.

Oh, and Podolski.

kamikaze

i love data, but that is a useless table.

Qwiss

kamikaze wrote:
i love data, but that is a useless table.

The only bit thats useless is the Chicarito inclusion as he hasn't been playing in Uniteds tougher matches/moments.

kamikaze

the assist stat as defined in publicly available sources is incredibly flawed and of little value in determining who "creates" goals.
the table isn't adjusted for quality of teammates.
the table isn't adjusted for quality of opposition.
the table isn't adjusted for whether a player starts or comes on as a sub against tired defences.
the table determines "goal involvement" solely by the last 2 players to touch the ball.

the only thing that table does is sort by (goals+assists)/minutes. for me, that's not very meaningful from a player evaluation standpoint. it's crude. it's like trying to scout basketball players and just picking them by height only. that's how you end up paying 40m for carroll and downing.

Mirth

I don't think so, for one it excludes the likes of Ricky Lambert, Benteke and Michu, who could potentially fit the Andy Carroll/Stewart Downing profile.

Not saying Michu or Benteke are bad but the players on the list are a cut above.

Qwiss

kamikaze wrote:
t's like trying to scout basketball players and just picking them by height only. that's how you end up paying 40m for carroll and downing.

Its a lot more like signing basketball players based on their minute/score ratio.

And Downings stats were poor at Villa so its definitely not why he was signed for so much.

kamikaze

you're surprised by that? it's just a list of attacking players owned by the top 4 clubs (and suarez).

try this: forwards for arsenal, chelsea, united, city and spurs and sort by minutes played. players on that list will be a cut above, too. must mean the list provides valuable insight, right?

kamikaze

qs! wrote:
Its a lot more like signing basketball players based on their minute/score ratio.

and that would also be a very poor way of evaluating who the best players are.

Mirth

Well it does to me, Rooney's been getting a lot of stick for his season (rightly so) but he's been productive enough, whereas the likes of Tevez and Aguero have had poor seasons without being productive. Also, I'm personally surprised Podolski has been as involved as he has. And Lukaku's inclusion is pretty big.

I don't know why I'm defending it really, I just thought it was a reasonable post to make for MistaT to make.

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