Captain wrote:
Man, Walcott does my nut. High impact player but he is so boneheaded. I give him a bye because he does show genuine improvement every season and it implies that he can be something else once he hits his prime, but jesus, the bloke needs to figure out how to use his talents for the benefit of the team and not just himself.
Can't stand how he's always looking for a shot. I like a bit of predatory instinct in a forward but I like it even more when they, like Podolski, have the ability to judge situations. Should I run another ten yards or let go of the ball? Should I cut inside or will that just cause the defence to close down the space? Is a low, hard cross better than taking an extra touch and then cutting a pass back to nobody from the shortline? You can tell that Theo doesn't think of any of these things anymore. He tries to make something for himself and if he fails he'll just go with the closest option. At one point Alaba stumbled outside their box and Sagna got hold of the ball. He passed it to Theo who, instead of moving it on, took three seconds to look for an opening and when he finally took the shot it was deflected because four Bayern players had moved in to close down the area. They now had seven players back. That's the worst way I've seen us screwing up a free goal for quite a while.
I don't recall Walcott being this way just two years ago. It all started a few months into last season. Before that he seemed like much more of a team player to me with genuinely useful contribution up and down the right flank.
