General Mirth wrote:
Most of Walcott's crosses are hit when he's running at pace, he can't realistically pick out a man and the next best thing to do is fizz it in and hope someone gets on the end of it.
I believe this is what Captain is referring to, though (in which case I agree with him). Crossing is not usually about planting the ball on someone's forehead. It's about targeting the vulnerable area behind the defence. You put the ball in and then you rely on the striker to make the run and meet your cross.
It's not a coincidence that someone like Sagna has registered about the same amount of assists for France and Arsenal despite only having 40 caps for them. He aims for the same area but we've had poor target forwards for years, Adebayor and Eduardo excluded.
What makes Walcott special in this case is that he mostly puts in low crosses, and always early before the defence has had a chance to fall back. I suppose you could call his crossing inconsistent in the sense that he doesn't always pull it off, but he probably gets this particular kind of crossball right more often than anyone else in Premier League. With a good striker you could easily create 10-15 goals per season this way.
