Claudius wrote:
Theo is not a big game player. This is a guy who had fewer than 10 touches of the ball before being subbed out towards the end of the game recently. We point to one or two instance of his big game (like the Milan run to set up Ade) and turn into a generalisation. Our standards have fallen in the wake of Hleb and Denilson. If we lost Walcott today and didn't replace him, we wouldn't miss him. This team has fought it's way to within a breath of second without him and I wouldn't start him over Welbeck, Sanchez or Giroud in a big game. The only reason to think about keeping Walcott right now is to comply with the more stringent English empowerment rules that were announced last week
Number of touches mean jack shit. Goals and assists matter in big games and Theo regularly comes up with those. Barca, United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Milan, Bayern etc. He's come up with the goods against those teams and on more than one occasions against most of them. If that doesn't make him a big game player, then your definition of one seriously differs from mine.