Theo Walcott: Sold to Everton

[Hyruga]

Walcott has never scored ANY late goals when Arsenal were chasing the game (needing a win) since season 2013/14.

He has featured in all the PL matches where Arsenal have LOST this season, alongside Cech, Bellerin and Sanchez.

Guess Walcott cannot partner with Bellerin and Sanchez is very true.

 

[chessygoal]

Walcott has never scored ANY late goals when Arsenal were chasing the game (needing a win) since season 2013/14.

He has featured in all the PL matches where Arsenal have LOST this season, alongside Cech, Bellerin and Sanchez.

Guess Walcott cannot partner with Bellerin and Sanchez is very true.

I don't get this Walcott bashing this season.
What do you expect from Theo? He's playing the best football of his life, finally accepting this season that he will never be a ST.
Theo does 3 things : making runs in behind, scoring in the box, tracking his opponent. Nothing less, nothing more.
Last season, Walcott was underperforming and deserved to be blamed, this season, he's probably our only player performing as we would expect him to do.
Now it's up to Arsène to decide if he thinks Theo adds enough value to the team to be a starter. I personally think that Theo is our best option right now but we should be looking for an upgrade next season.

 

[mm76]

I don't get this Walcott bashing this season.
What do you expect from Theo? He's playing the best football of his life, finally accepting this season that he will never be a ST.
Theo does 3 things : making runs in behind, scoring in the box, tracking his opponent. Nothing less, nothing more.
Last season, Walcott was underperforming and deserved to be blamed, this season, he's probably our only player performing as we would expect him to do.
Now it's up to Arsène to decide if he thinks Theo adds enough value to the team to be a starter. I personally think that Theo is our best option right now but we should be looking for an upgrade next season.

i've a lot of sympathy with that view, it's just a shame he's not that much more consistent and too many fans are just fed up with him plain and simple, but i do think he got better when he was under more competition for his place

 

[Hyruga]

I don't get this Walcott bashing this season.
What do you expect from Theo? He's playing the best football of his life, finally accepting this season that he will never be a ST.
Theo does 3 things : making runs in behind, scoring in the box, tracking his opponent. Nothing less, nothing more.
Last season, Walcott was underperforming and deserved to be blamed, this season, he's probably our only player performing as we would expect him to do.
Now it's up to Arsène to decide if he thinks Theo adds enough value to the team to be a starter. I personally think that Theo is our best option right now but we should be looking for an upgrade next season.

Did you even watch all the matches or just watch the highlights?

His contribution in most matches were minimal and often horrendous.

 

[karl]

I think it is the same reason people are fed up with a lot of the players. Whatever you think of the manager, these players will make a serious effort following a long period of poor performances for a while. Then, as soon as the pressure is off, they revert to type and relax.

You've seen what they could do with the right attitude against Chelsea at home and those performances have also come against Bayern and Man City in the past.

For the price of season tickets and the top wages paid, it is right to expect much more. If they didn't have the capability and were mid-level players, nobody would complain.

They have roundly let the fans and manager down and it is his fault for allowing them to without consequence.

 

[chessygoal]

Did you even watch all the matches or just watch the highlights?

His contribution in most matches were minimal and often horrendous.

I watched every Arsenal games in the last ten years, going through horrible internet things to download full games
But anyway, my point is just that Walcott is a very limited player, we all know it, Wenger knows it, if he plays him, he deserves to be blamed. I don't buy this "Walcott doesn't give his best" theory especially because I think he's miles better than last season when I just couldn't stand seeing him in a line-up.

 

[Rain Dance]

I don't get this Walcott bashing this season.
What do you expect from Theo? He's playing the best football of his life, finally accepting this season that he will never be a ST.

second best football... he hasn't surpassed 2012/2013

 

[Wryer]

Walcott's issue is still a confidence one. From his body language you know he feels like a fish out of water, and can't wait for the attention to divert away from him. Look at the number of times he miscontrols or misread a pass, and then quickly putting his head down and then jogging himself away from the scene. No desire to be the No. 1 man, but happy to be No. 3 or 4.

Only once in a while does he show some reaction to a bad foul. To me, that's just him channeling his frustration on himself.

We might have bigged up someone so badly that it's crushing him like a boulder.

 

[Stoneh]

Wenger is partially to blame for Theos lack of progression. Look at most of the players who were bought in as prospects.. none have really progressed because the old fool has no clue. Its been said by many ex players in training he just leaves you to do whatever. Certainly looks that way.

Wenger on matchdays appears muted with no energy or urgency. Which is mirrored on the pitch by the players. He sacrifices team cohesion by shoe horning in his favs.

Is it really a surprise then that most players play better when pressure is off? Its a stroll then.. enjoying pass pass pass

 

[Garrincha]

Key stat: The 28-year-old has failed to score a goal or create a chance in the calendar year so far.

 

[Santi's Left Foot]

Noticed this. His attacking play has been shocking recently, if he can't execute properly then he should work on other things.

Maybe he's just struggling physically at his age because when he first came on the scene he had it all.

 

[YeahBee]

I don't get this Walcott bashing this season.
What do you expect from Theo? He's playing the best football of his life, finally accepting this season that he will never be a ST.
Theo does 3 things : making runs in behind, scoring in the box, tracking his opponent. Nothing less, nothing more.
Last season, Walcott was underperforming and deserved to be blamed, this season, he's probably our only player performing as we would expect him to do.
Now it's up to Arsène to decide if he thinks Theo adds enough value to the team to be a starter. I personally think that Theo is our best option right now but we should be looking for an upgrade next season.

He scores some

but we NEED more

he doesn't contribute much teamplay, he runs mostly for himself, he doesn't have the head to make runs that benefit others, he doesn't beat his man much these days because his touch just isn't that great and with a slight loss of his pace

and it is not like you expect a great pass when he has got the ball at his feet

Compare him with guys like Pires and Ljungberg who provided goals and all of the above

 

[YeahBee]

We might have bigged up someone so badly that it's crushing him like a boulder.

Yes

Wenger probably feels it worked with Cesc so why shouldn't it work with anybody?

And tbh, there are a select few players who have been as instrumental as Cesc was for us at such a young age
Rooney and Messi...
And then there are others like Sneijder but they started in lesser leagues and so on

We've got a ton of players that got plenty of game time young and later didn't pan out to anything.
Denilson
Bendtner
Senderos
Djourou
Vela
the list is long

the Cescs of this world are outliers, I tihnk it is pretty obvious that going slow is the way to nurture talent, game time yes but not grinding game time.

heck even if they are profesional athletes they are still kids, it is simple biology, the human body isn't developed fully until the early 20s

 

[infinium]

Interesting that Bellerin is in this list with Walcott. I feel our right flank has been very problematic recently because Bellerin is having too much freedom to get forward and is even starting to drift into central areas. The knock on effect is to squeeze the space that Walcott has to operate in making him even less effective and more passive than he ordinarily is anyway.

 

[infinium]

We've got a ton of players that got plenty of game time young and later didn't pan out to anything.
Denilson
Bendtner
Senderos
Djourou
Vela
the list is long

These kids were destroyed from the pressure placed on them. Denilson actually did very well given that the kid was anchoring a Top 4 midfield at the age of 20 alongside an equally young Fabregas. By all accounts, the guy was naturally very quiet and passive anyway so to give him that level of responsibility and to only have William Gallas as your "leader" was a joke. Together with the complete lack of any tactical set up -- it is little wonder that his career quickly declined.

 

[BobP]

These kids were destroyed from the pressure placed on them. Denilson actually did very well given that the kid was anchoring a Top 4 midfield at the age of 20 alongside an equally young Fabregas. By all accounts, the guy was naturally very quiet and passive anyway so to give him that level of responsibility and to only have William Gallas as your "leader" was a joke. Together with the complete lack of any tactical set up -- it is little wonder that his career quickly declined.

Lads were left traumatized after the banter era, the mental trauma caused them irreversible trauma, just as it did to us fans.

For example, Djourou and Senderos, having started as promising young defenders, have becomes bumbling, nervous wrecks, constantly on the verge of making mistakes.

 

[YeahBee]

We might aswell add Ramsey to that list
He was one of the best CMs in the league one year.
The stupid thing is that all the skills and natural attribute he and those on the list had were "talents" the mistakes they made were things they were supposed to be taught, trained traits
But when you play in a team with bad coaching it is not being taught, when you don't have great senior players to emulate it doesn't happen and your overall skills deteriorate because youthful lust and excitement disappears

Look at Messi and how he was introduced into the team while Ronaldinho was still the man, how both Ronaldinho and Messi speak so highly of Henrik Larsson, and he had Xavi and others to learn from osmosis around

 

[mm76]

others to learn from osmosis around

didn't he play for Olympiacos?

 

[Hyruga]

Looks like Arsenal is heading for their 8th premier League losses featuring Walcott, bellerin and Sanchez. They played in all these games.

See where is the problem?

 

[GDeep™]

Looks like Arsenal is heading for their 8th premier League losses featuring Walcott, bellerin and Sanchez. They played in all these games.

See where is the problem?

Sanchez is leaving soon. You must be happy.