Walcott Injury

[augie]

I find it funny that people say that without him we have no pace in the team - we have plenty of pace (ox and rosicky are no slouches) but wally brings a level of speed that maybe only half a dozen players at this level actually have. What I am saying is that without wally we have the same level of pace that most teams have so we have not become a slow team overnight. When our team is at it's best it is down to the tempo that the team play at but if we drop to pedestrian tippy tappy football (as we often do) then all the walcotts in the world wont save us

[armchair]

May not save us but absolutely provides an option, another dimension that most teams have to be aware of ond on their guard for.

[Supagoon]

I find it funny that people say that without him we have no pace in the team - we have plenty of pace (ox and rosicky are no slouches) but wally brings a level of speed that maybe only half a dozen players at this level actually have. What I am saying is that without wally we have the same level of pace that most teams have so we have not become a slow team overnight. When our team is at it's best it is down to the tempo that the team play at but if we drop to pedestrian tippy tappy football (as we often do) then all the walcotts in the world wont save us

Walcott gives us pace + finish. He uses his pace to finish a move.

Rosicky can a barely finish, he is a midfielder, pace is hardly essential.

And now of course we'll have to tippy tappy our opponents to death. Giroud running on to a through ball is like a plastic bag falling from the sky attached to a parachute.

Previous people have said, Ramsey's industry and shooting really helped us in the first part of the season, who is going to do it now?

[Ryanswannell]

Walcott gives us pace + finish. He uses his pace to finish a move.

Rosicky can a barely finish, he is a midfielder, pace is hardly essential.

And now of course we'll have to tippy tappy our opponents to death. Giroud running on to a through ball is like a plastic bag falling from the sky attached to a parachute.

Previous people have said, Ramsey's industry and shooting really helped us in the first part of the season, who is going to do it now?

I'm not so sure.
Did you see his goal against tottnumb? Had Walcott found himself in that position he would have probably kicked it straight at Lloris.

Anyway, I really appreciate what Walcott can do for us and I am gutted that he is out for so long. Hopefully he isn't too affected by his injury and doesn't have any set-backs during his time out.

[QuartzGooner]

I find it funny that people say that without him we have no pace in the team - we have plenty of pace (ox and rosicky are no slouches) but wally brings a level of speed that maybe only half a dozen players at this level actually have. What I am saying is that without wally we have the same level of pace that most teams have so we have not become a slow team overnight. When our team is at it's best it is down to the tempo that the team play at but if we drop to pedestrian tippy tappy football (as we often do) then all the walcotts in the world wont save us

I think this is a key part rather than the lack of pacey players.
It is about how we play as a team.
As you rightly say, when we play at a decent tempo, with confidence, and close down the opposition, we are very good.
If we play a slow tip-tap game then it means we have a lot of possession but not enough end product.
I think Walcott is very valuable as a slightly different option, who is a bit more direct than some others and who provides an "Out ball" on the right.

Will be interesting to see if Ozil is deployed on the right more often, with Rosicky central and Cazorla/Podolski left, or if Gnabry and The Ox get frequent chances to play wide right.

[father_ted]

Feel genuinely sorry for the guy - as the retard on page 1 ( ) already said, I am not convinced by the bloke but I have seen signs of improvement in him lately and from that point alone this injury couldn't have come at a worse time That being said I still believe that the injury is a bigger blow to himself than it is to the team - he is not the type of player required to fill the lone striker role and we have gnarby and a soon to be returning ox, that are more than capable of filling the right wing position.

I also concur with the suggestion that this injury wont affect the transfer plans of the C*** In Charge one jot

Mocking the disabled. Classy

[Chippy]

Feel genuinely sorry for the guy - as the retard on page 1 ( ) already said, I am not convinced by the bloke but I have seen signs of improvement in him lately and from that point alone this injury couldn't have come at a worse time That being said I still believe that the injury is a bigger blow to himself than it is to the team - he is not the type of player required to fill the lone striker role and we have gnarby and a soon to be returning ox, that are more than capable of filling the right wing position.

I also concur with the suggestion that this injury wont affect the transfer plans of the C*** In Charge one jot

Mocking the disabled. Classy

Father ted, I don't know why you have it in for Augie but you really are being a wum. You cannot mock him after some of the shit you have posted. Give it a rest or tell us who you really are.

[silus]

I find him one of
the most frustrating players I've ever seen but I think we are a weaker team when he isnt playing..I don't think you can knock his goals and assists ratio last/this season and he certainly was improving and maturing as a player.

Terrible timing for the lad...and just as I was allowing myself to believe we might nick a bit of silverware with the right signing in january...over to you wenger.

[Glitch33]

A significant loss to the squad.

Might see more of Gnabry in Theo's absence.

[samflitt]

If he had played the same games as Giroud this season he would have about 4 times the assists and goals of Giroud. Hopefully Gnabry will be able to help but it is a big question seeing as he is being thrown in the deep end.

[STLgooner89]

Just looked at some stats and did some math....Theo and Ozil got to play just 10 games together this season. Only 5 of them were they both starters and their total minutes spent on the pitch together was roughly 482 minutes.

The first game they played together, away at sunderland, we saw how easily ozil could pick out the runs of someone like Walcott. It's a shame that two of our best/most impactful players barely got to play together when it's obvious how much someone like Ozil needs players like Walcott to show what he can do as well.

[storrmin571]

This is the point in the season we fuck it up. Wenger will not buy anyone. It'll go the same way as the Eduardo season.

[markyp]

gutted gutted gutted,woke up in the night in a cold sweat!!!really sad for him that he misses the world cup AGAIN!!!

[SteveO 35]

A very damaging blow in my opinion and I feel desperately sorry for the guy. No doubt certain sections will be delighted to tar him with the same brush as Abou and Rosicky for committing the serious crime of picking up a bad injury

When we've been in title contending positions going into the second half of the season we have form for reverting to a slow tip tap pace and play into the hands of visiting sides who have the threat of relegation hanging over them which invariably means dropped points. We may not feel it so much at the moment but this guy is the one player who makes those sort of teams think twice about squeezing the play too tightly, and love him or hate him he can also provide a 20 minute impact from the bench if its a game he hasn't been selected to start in.

If Lord Wenger doesn't sign a striker, and odds on he won't, then this will go down as one of the days when the title bid took a massive hit

[DB10GOONER]

Gutted for Theo. But tbh it's not the end of our season. I say this because Theo is not world class, he doesn't have a huge impact regularly for us. He never has had. He is very inconsistant.

BUT

Alot of his performances I think are affected by the way we often play. We seldom utilise his abilities or play to his strengths, and often wedge him into our "system". He also does offer us another option away from tippy tappy passy pass pass - an option we under use. And he does have a nice habit of scoring in big games and against big clubs on occasion. He has pace obviously and can finish when he doesn't have time to think about it. He's a good, but not great, player for me.

He will be a loss to us, but he won't be the deciding factor in us not winning the league - that is down to one man and his narrow vision of how football "should" be played, and how transfer markets "should" run, and his lack of any type of proper Plan B or pragmatism in certain games. And that man is Arsene Wenger.