WALCOTT - which position is best etc?

[SteveO 35]

Theo Walcott has scored 11 goals in all competitions for the club this season, leaving him just two short of equalling his most prolific season, when he netted 13 in 2010-11.

How's Giroud getting on?

STAT ALERT
Of course your 11 goals stat doesnt factor in that 5 were against lower league opposition and only 5 were in the league which if I am not mistaken is only 1 more than giroud who is in his first season playing in a new league and country

Over-protective of new signing alert !

Unlike our goal machine who also includes in his amazing tally goals against Reading and Coventry in the League Cup. You're startng to sound like Wenger with your 'adaption period' - the fella is 27 years old for fuck's sake. By the time he adapts he'll be thinking about taking up gardening

Seriously Steve O I am not standing up for giroud as such but am merely pointing out the fact that wonderboy's stats are not that impressive if you take coventry and half a reading team out of the equation

I know mate

Our leading goalscorer is a midfielder now anyway I thought. Maybe that's just the PL but I'm sure Santi is leading the way now. Says it all really about our dynamic strikeforce. Still, hopefully TH14's seven week loan which includes four weeks of trying to get fit will come and sort out all our problems

[Cockerill's chin]

Theo's 5 league goals and 5 league assists have come from 755 mins on the pitch. That's 5 goals and 5 goals created in just over 8 games. This is still a fantastic return wouldn't you agree?? The Walcott bashing is out of date. There is end product now.

[g88ner]

Theo's 5 league goals and 5 league assists have come from 755 mins on the pitch. That's 5 goals and 5 goals created in just over 8 games. This is still a fantastic return wouldn't you agree?? The Walcott bashing is out of date. There is end product now.

Without putting those goals into context, yes that looks - on paper - a decent return.

But of those 5 goals, how many were important?

When we beat Southampton 6-1, he scored the last of the six... so on an importance scale, that would rank about zero.
When we beat Sp*rs 5-2, he scored the last of the five... so on an importance scale, that would also rank about zero.
When we beat Reading 5-2, he scored the last of five... so on an importance scale, that would again rank about zero.

His 2 more important goals were his goal at West Ham (in a 3-1 win) and his 1st minute goal at Everton.

Until he starts scoring far more important, game changing goals on a regular basis, he's always going to be criticised. He always strikes me as a fair weather player, a guy who looks good when the team is playing well, but very rarely is the catalyst; rarely the guy who grabs a game by the scruff of the neck and makes it his - and like it or not, that's the level of striker we need; an Henry, a Van Persie, an Ian Wright, a Suarez, a Rooney... a Theo?? hmm... not so sure.

Useful squad player though.

[armchair]

Fuck me g88ner you sure know how to rain on a parade!

[augie]

Theo's 5 league goals and 5 league assists have come from 755 mins on the pitch. That's 5 goals and 5 goals created in just over 8 games. This is still a fantastic return wouldn't you agree?? The Walcott bashing is out of date. There is end product now.

The twitchers son was waxing lyrical about walnut prior to the game and spoke about all the things he brings to the team as a striker...........at half time he referred to the fact that wigan defenders were all fast and as much as said that taking the pace out of wally's game leaves little else to contribute Today's performance was not the type of showing expected from a guy trying to prove himself as a striker - people lauded him after the reading game and stated that centre forward is his rightful position which imo is bullshit cos he neither has strikers instinct nor the intelligence to be a striker What I will concede however, is that asking him to play the lone striker role is totally unreasonable - to play the lone striker you need to be physical to hold up the ball and link play with your midfielders and it's always been very clear that these are traits that feo does not possess and it fcuking baffles me why people keep calling for him to be played as a striker in this current system
Turning in more performances like today will ensure that feo "bashing" will never go out of fashion

[g88ner]

Fuck me g88ner you sure know how to rain on a parade!

That's rich coming from banner boy we're 3rd - rejoice!!!

[armchair]

Fuck me g88ner you sure know how to rain on a parade!

That's rich coming from banner boy we're 3rd - rejoice!!!

[officepest]

If we're going to use him as a striker it needs to be as an 'off the shoulder' type, a la Owen (in his pomp, as opposed to the fraudulent crock who picks up his wages for doing fuck all now) or Bent.

Unless we play someone up there with him then there's a problem as we don't play a game that's suited to this type of striker.

I reckon he's as good as sold anyway.

[QuartzGooner]

He always strikes me as a fair weather player, a guy who looks good when the team is playing well, but very rarely is the catalyst; rarely the guy who grabs a game by the scruff of the neck and makes it his - and like it or not, that's the level of striker we need; an Henry, a Van Persie, an Ian Wright, a Suarez, a Rooney... a Theo?? hmm... not so sure.

Useful squad player though.

He is a big game player, scored vs Barcelona and even as far back as League Cup final 2007.

[g88ner]

He always strikes me as a fair weather player, a guy who looks good when the team is playing well, but very rarely is the catalyst; rarely the guy who grabs a game by the scruff of the neck and makes it his - and like it or not, that's the level of striker we need; an Henry, a Van Persie, an Ian Wright, a Suarez, a Rooney... a Theo?? hmm... not so sure.

Useful squad player though.

He is a big game player, scored vs Barcelona and even as far back as League Cup final 2007.

Only as long as the conditions are right for him to shine. Give him space on a big open pitch and he'll kill you... deny him that space and he generally disappears from the game.

Only when a player is changing a game on a regular basis, on any pitch and against any opposition can he be considered the real deal. For me, you can tell whether Theo will play well or not based on how the opposition set up, and that surely makes him a fair weather player: it either suits him or it doesn't.

But I do like Theo and hopes he stays. He gives us a decent option and has been far more productive this season.

[Cockerill's chin]

That's a very high bar g88ner. Theo has made an impact in big games; Udinese to get us into the CL, setting up Ade at Anfield etc. Without him, I think we look one dimensional and allow defences to push up, squeezing Cazorla and Jack out of the game.

He struggled today but unlocked them to earn us a penalty and a good 3 points. The bashing will continue more out of habit than reason.

I don't understand how people can compare what Theo is apparently asking for with Jack's contract. Those people are ignoring the influence of six months remaining on a contract. That strengthens Theo's hand and makes him more expensive to retain which makes any comparison to Jack redundant. I blame Gazidis for negligence rather than Walcott for greed.

[QuartzGooner]

I thought Theo was good today.

Like Augie I think he should be in a front two; but even so we at least had forward momentum with him in the role today.
We struggled mainly because Wigan played out of their skins to close us down, and Podolski, Wilshere and Cazorla look worn out.

[northbank123]

That's a very high bar g88ner. Theo has made an impact in big games; Udinese to get us into the CL, setting up Ade at Anfield etc. Without him, I think we look one dimensional and allow defences to push up, squeezing Cazorla and Jack out of the game.

He struggled today but unlocked them to earn us a penalty and a good 3 points. The bashing will continue more out of habit than reason.

I don't understand how people can compare what Theo is apparently asking for with Jack's contract. Those people are ignoring the influence of six months remaining on a contract. That strengthens Theo's hand and makes him more expensive to retain which makes any comparison to Jack redundant. I blame Gazidis for negligence rather than Walcott for greed.

To be honest mate he's been at us for 7 years now. The fact that we still point to individual games (especially those as far back as 2007 and 2008) really speaks volumes about the consistency of his impact. Jesus, even Gervinho played a big role in putting us through in Udine, and I could pick out at least a few games where he has contributed considerably to the team success. If you asked me to sum up van Staplecunt's impact last year alone by picking say 5 or 6 games I would struggle, because there were so many that he impacted on and was decisive in. So Theo scoring in a losing LC final 5.5 years ago, setting up a goal in a losing CL quarter-final 4.5 years ago and scoring a goal in a 6-3 aggregate dicking 3.5 years ago don't really make my dick hard.

For the record I actually want Walcott to stay, without a doubt. The logic about us giving up and wasting our investment on him doesn't wash for me, because that's exactly the same logic that sees Gervinho, Rosicky etc etc sucking up wages at the club. I agree with G88ner that it's massively predictable when he'll turn up and when he'll get shut out. But if we at some point in the foreseeable future take the radical step of adapting tactics based on our players and the opposition set-up then we would get so much more out of Walcott. And besides, with the current state of our squad we can't really afford to let 'decent' top 4 players walk out of the club.

And I don't really think Gazidis can be blamed for this. Neither can you lazily just blame "the board". His job is to look after the purely commercial/financial side of things, not football aspects. The board is not responsible for managing the football team, only defining the limits under which the manager operates. It's Wenger's responsibility to foresee these situations, and the board (as a whole, not individuals) may only then be blamed if they stand in his way of securing these players by virtue of imposing an upper wage limit or maximum contract length for example. Which, as far as anybody can reasonably tell, is what Wenger does to himself.

[franksav63]

Up front on his own or whatever, he's lack of effort and quality in the Wigan game was there for all to see, I really hope he fucks off next month and we get someone in who can actually control a ball and break sweat for the cause.

[QuartzGooner]

Frank

We could debate his 'quality" for ages but I am baffled how you blame him for lack of effort versus Wigan?

He made the runs he was supposed to make for the position he played in.

He is not supposed to chase back to the half way line more than once or twice in a game, he is to use his energy for short bursts of high pace into space, which is what I saw him do.