Theo Walcott: Page 74 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Theo Walcott

Burnwinter

Played central vs Reading - any bets on whether he'll continue to do so until he signs or is sold?

I reckon we may see it again. Perhaps Wenger is trying to talk himself into giving Walcott the money he's asking for.

MistaT

Don't see how Walcott's value differs if he's wide or central.

In fact, I think its harder and often more expensive to find a consistent goal threat from wide than CF.

y va marquer

Burnwinter wrote:
Played central vs Reading - any bets on whether he'll continue to do so until he signs or is sold?

I reckon we may see it again. Perhaps Wenger is trying to talk himself into giving Walcott the money he's asking for.

Saw Wenger interviewed directly after the match and he said he had decided to play Theo central because he'd been doing so in training and that he'd been doing well.
Commenting on his performance in the game he said there were "encouraging signs", so yes, I reckon we will see it again.
I think it's worth persuing right now, certainly better than reverting back to the Gervinho experiment.

JazzG

I don't think it is about his position or anything like all about the money, hopefully if Jack, Ox, Ramsay and Gibbs sign extensions it will put him under pressure

He played well yesterday but it was against a very naive team in Reading, good performance though. Did better than I thought he would.

FEBravo

I agree, I expected him to struggle more than he did with his back to goal. That being said, it was a poor Reading side. I doubt he'd ever see the ball with the likes of Kompany marking him.

goon

Kompany can't keep up with him. If he can time his runs a little better he'll be great up top. Gets defenders running back and opens up space for the midfield and also provides a great counter attacking threat.

FEBravo

Yup, that one counter from a corner where he found Cazorla is something we've been missing for a while.

If he can also perfect the dropping deep dragging the CB with him and then running past him and get in sync with the midfield he'll get through a few times. Guess we'll see at LIverpool

JazzG

otfgoon wrote:
Kompany can't keep up with him. If he can time his runs a little better he'll be great up top. Gets defenders running back and opens up space for the midfield and also provides a great counter attacking threat.

Top defenders know that against Theo you can't keep up with him for pace so deal with it in different ways, Henry was a far better player and seen some games where he was totally taken out of the game. You have be smart against pace and it remains to be seen if Theo would have as much luck against a top defensive side because they won't let our midfielders carve them open with through balls for Theo to run onto.

What that pace does though is worry and make defenders think a bit more which is good, someone like Giroud is a lot easier to mark.

FrancisJeffersAwfulCareer

Even if Walcott has very little room to work with, he'd constantly be darting across the defence trying to open them up. It's a win-win having him there no matter how good the opposition.

GaelForce

FEBravo wrote:
I agree, I expected him to struggle more than he did with his back to goal. That being said, it was a poor Reading side. I doubt he'd ever see the ball with the likes of Kompany marking him.

Same. Thought he was excellent in that respect, which I completely didn't expect. Would now put him down as a great option for away games when we'll get a bit more space. Still don't think we'd get away with Theo at CF for home Prem games. Maybe only against Spurs. 😆

Kel Varnsen

should definitely play in the middle up front. we can adapt our style to playing theo in the middle, but i doubt theo will ever adapt to playing right wing for us. i also think he's a pretty good striker.

Burnwinter

MistaT wrote:
Don't see how Walcott's value differs if he's wide or central.

In fact, I think its harder and often more expensive to find a consistent goal threat from wide than CF.

Well we're short a clear and present 20+ goal central option and Walcott's probably only a 10/10 proposition starting on the wing. Should be worth a try.

Mirth

Kel Varnsen wrote:
we can adapt our style to playing theo in the middle, but i doubt theo will ever adapt to playing right wing for us.

Fair point.

Qwiss

Even if he was being marked out of the game his pace push the defence back and creates space for the AM line behind him. I definitely want to see it played again in our next few games and see if we get similar amounts of space for Cazorla, Podolski and Ox as we did last night.

asajoseph

Theo has a reasonably good scoring records against big teams with good defences.

It's Giroud, a player almost polar opposite in terms of skillset, that seems to struggle royally against better teams.

Qwiss

Giroud and Theo are decent options too because they offer such different attributes.

asajoseph

Mind you, Giroud has had big chances against both Utd & Chelsea this year. He's just missed them.

GaelForce

qs! wrote:
Giroud and Theo are decent options too because they offer such different attributes.

Games they've started together:
6-1 v Coventry (1 goal for Giroud, 2 for Theo)
2-2 v Schalke (1 goal for Giroud, 1 for Theo)
3-3 v Fulham (2 goals for Giroud)
5-2 v Spurs (1 goal for Giroud, 1 for Theo)
1-1 v Everton (1 goal for Theo)

Impressive, no? Not including when they combined against West Ham and Reading either. They're our best two forwards in terms of movement and creating space, and really seem the help each other when in the same team. It's crazy for me how much more direct we've been when they're both on the pitch. Notice all the first half goals in those 5 games as well, convinced it's because they're our only players consistently making intelligent runs behind the defence, we miss them so much when Podolski, Chamberlain and Ramsey are in the front three.

lorddulaarsenal

Theo will be a better Defoe

Armor

Can we stop fucking about and pay him the money now please?

Can't believe that chump Gervinho got a chance up front before Theo.

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