Squad Analysis 2013/14: Page 88 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Squad Analysis 2013/14

Claudius

Our two best wide defenders are Ox and Sanchez. Theo is the most limited player in our front four. He just disappears from games. There are too many games where I've had to pull up the starting lineup to confirm that he is playing. When does he disappear most? When things are congested or we keep losing through ball in midfield. He doesn't drop back to win the ball or demand it from the defenders. He's a premium economy passenger 95% of the time. 9 passes? That's a pass every 10 minutes.Disgusting.

ultimatewarrior

Rex wrote:
Speak for yourself.

I'll speak for you too. That's why you're here in the dungeons next to me, lol.

ultimatewarrior

banduan wrote:
Theo needs to be told to do what he's been doing before his injury, getting involved in play. He is one of our better crossers and snagged loads of assists from smart runs down the flanks. Now he's just drifting in, mainly because he knows he times his runs very well and can easily get a scoring chance, but to the detriment of our general play.

Nail.On.Head.

He's playing like Ramsey at the moment, but I think he's still finding his feet after the injury. He should improve with games.

ultimatewarrior

Claudius wrote:
Our two best wide defenders are Ox and Sanchez. Theo is the most limited player in our front four. He just disappears from games. There are too many games whee I've had to pull up the starting lineup to confirm that they is playing. When does he disappear most? When things are congested or we keep losing through ball in midfield. He doesn't drop back to win the ball or demand it from the defenders. He's a premium economy passenger 95% of the time. 9 passes? That's a pass every 10 minutes.Disgusting.

I would rather play Walcott up top and Sanchez/Oxlade on the flanks. The latter two have shown us good displays in wide performances. Ozil and Walcott are more effective, but offer only a third of the work rate and build up play.

goon

Kel Varnsen wrote:
Theo is great as a wide striker, but he's a poor right winger.

Spot on. If people want him to be more involved with play then there are better players in the squad.

If you want a constant goal threat, Theo is your man.

Bold Tone

He may be an efficient finisher but we need to have the ball in order to give him the chance.

Clrnc

People like Cazorla and Rosicky have enough of the ball to create for him.

Theo is a rare specimen in our squad. We have enough of the same kind, we need him to run and score instead of being too involved in he middle play and then affect his final 3rd play.

There are quite a number of great players in the world who can be anonymous for most part and yet be involved in all of the most dangerous chances created.

BWoolley

Agreed. If Giroud is going to be our main striker, we need someone like Walcott playing off him who will run beyond him more often that not. My real issue with him is not his capability set, but his injury record, which is terrible. We really need someone like him as an additional outlet against a high press and to play cross and cutbacks from wide - as banduan wrote earlier, he does link up well with Giroud. Having said that, I think Ozil and Walcott in the same team don't mix unless the midfield commits to staying behind the halfway line and protecting the fullbacks.

Bold Tone

That's the plan but when our midfield is being over powered it could do with Walcott helping out as unlike Cazorla and Ozil, he is quite good at it.

evoh

Bold Tone wrote:
He may be an efficient finisher but we need to have the ball in order to give him the chance.

Not really, you only need it once a game potentially.

Theo is a great foil for us as a clinical striker playing wide who wants to go beyond the back four with pace, he is also really effective in big games because of that pace. We have enough players who want to show and get the ball to feet and mess around with it, theo want to play into space instead.

Bold Tone

He hardly got any chances in his 10 mins vs spuds or the 2nd half vs Leicester. What is the point of a starting player being as underutilised as he was, with 6 successful passes out of a total of 9 for the entire period he is on the pitch?
He doesn't go wide so is never an option for the outlet pass so he is of negative value as any other player would offer this as a bare minimum.

Anzac

Walcott has been playing more as a SS rather than WF since RVP's last season & definitely from Giroud's 1st season. As he's been playing more as a poacher he's been doing less in providing cover or tracking back & it's like his primary focus is all about scoring. More often than not he hovers in the background looking to make himself available for a through ball in attack.

Last season in the 4231 he usually played off Giroud's shoulder and inside the tramlines looking to run the channel. However in the new 4141 the WFs are positioned wider and deeper than in the 4231 and Walcott can not 'get away' with playing a poacher role as a result. Against Leicester he was often seen playing from the CF position.
If we are to retain the more compact 4141 style then I think Walcott needs to return to a WF role to utilise his pace and acceleration from deeper, and I thought we saw glimpses of how effective he could be v Villa where he got on the ball early and opened the game from inside our own half with a direct pass from deep, and then combined with Cazorla to score. IMO he is more effective as WF than SS/CF poacher.

banduan

lagos wrote:
I bet you are all scratching your heads trying to think of just one.

Well we'd be scratching our heads mainly because we don't have photographic memory.
I dislike this challenge because it makes the massive assertion that a player has to be able to drag his team to a win to be good.
But just for the sake of it.
Anyway, 7-5 v Newcastle ... in fact we were rubbish that season and he was one of our best players.
7-4 v Reading
Game against Watford a long while back, maybe one against Fulham. (this one: http://onemoreinthetolly.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=898&highlight=theo )

Rex

We also have City at the Etihad last season when we were thrashed 6-3, and the Birmingham game where Eduardo broke his leg. The truth is, Lagos, that if I could be arsed I could find you 20 games where Walcott was good when the team was not functioning well. The counterargument to that though is the easy 'I don't think he was good in the X game at all', and we'd just be going around in circles. And I would have lost half an hour of my life digging up those games... Let's not do that! 🙂

Walcott has been out for a year and is obviously not in his best form yet. Despite that he scores every time he starts, and that is massively impressive. Despite being so little involved in play, people still talk about the chances he has missed, on top of the goals he has scored. What's wrong with a player who isn't very involved in general play, but still looks the most dangerous attacking player?

Chambo certainly is easier on the eye and looks destined for big things, but right now I'd take Walcott over him any day of the week. If you compare Arsenal to the powerhouses in the league, Chelsea and Man City, then I'd say the biggest difference is that those teams score 30 odd goals more a season than we do. We need goals, and Walcott is a great source for bridging that gap.

The problem for me occurs when Wenger insists on playing Walcott on one flank and Özil on the other. The balance of the team becomes totally wrong IMO, because we then lack sufficient defensive contribution on BOTH flanks. Something has to give, but I guess that is for the guy who earns £7m per year to solve.

Rex

Could be £8m per year now...

Burnwinter

lagos wrote:
I said name five games where the team was playing badly e.g against Spurs the other day and Theo was the exception.

I bet you are all scratching your heads trying to think of just one.

I'd say unless you're a memory wizard you'd be struggling to think of five for most of the players in this squad that you do like. It's naturally more difficult for strikers, who will see far less of the ball when the rest of the team is dysfunctional.

Theo's definitely a bit of a front runner, but we also need front runners to kill games. He looks like he's going to score regularly at the moment so he needs to play.

ChiliPalmer

lagos wrote:
Chili Palmer wrote:

Theo doesn't need the team to play well. All he needs is the ball in the final 3rd, and he'll make the most of it. Scores loads of individual goals too - an underrated aspect of his.

we all know the goals Theo has scored, showing a highlight of his goals does not address the issue I raised. I said name five games where the team was playing badly e.g against Spurs the other day and Theo was the exception.

this challenge open to every forum member.

If my assertion is false then it shouldn't be hard to come up with 5 games out of over 200, considering we've been quite shite in a lot of them.

I bet you are all scratching your heads trying to think of just one.

Sorry, but that sounds like the most pointless challenge ever. I think I'll pass. But what do they say about good players? "When Messi plays well, Barca play well" ... "When Theo plays well...." You get the drift... ;D so, 5 games is probably the most you're going to find; because with Theo at his best, we're pretty lethal going forward, and play excellent football.

Biggus

Arsenal have pretty players but no killers, says Manu Petit.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenals-pretty-players-lack-killer-5218269

Well maybe this interview was before we signed Gabriel.....

goon

Not to dismiss someone with such magnificent hair but we used to lose plenty of points in his days and amassed less points between 97 and 99 than we did last season in what most people agree is a much tougher league now. We were also embarrassingly bad in Europe at that time.

If this squad is missing anything it's athletes.

Ray

--------Szczesny
Debuchy-Per-Kos-Gibbs
-----Ramsey-Arteta
Ozil---Cazorla--Sanchez
---------Giroud

I would pick that as my start 11.

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