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Surely this Arsenal man would be thriving at a different club?

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Back in 2006, English football was rife with speculative excitement about the future of our game, thanks in no part to the inconceivable inclusion of Theo Walcott, a prodigious 16 year old with not a single Premier League appearance to his name, in the World Cup squad.

The cause of much of the excitement stemmed from the fact that Walcott was astonishingly quick with a willingness to dribble at defenders (something that worked out pretty well for us in 1998 with Michael Owen). As a nation that had spent the previous 7 years transfixed by Thierry Henry’s pace and technique, and were desperate for an Henry of our own. The press and public saw enough in Walcott’s pace, physical appearance, his role as a winger cum centre forward and his tutelage at Arsenal under Wenger – the man who had turned Henry into a world beater – to get ourselves rather hot and bothered about the future of English football and Theo’s role in it. But is it Wenger’s influence that has actually held him back?

Fast forward six years and I found myself at the Emirates this weekend to watch Robin van Persie drag a faltering Arsenal side to victory over a miserably limited Sunderland side. Around me in the stands there was much discontent from the home fans with cries of anguish and heated debate as numerous attacks spluttered to a halt with Walcott, seemingly operating on another wave length to his teammates, bearing much of their ire.

There seems to be a number of problems with the Walcott/Arsenal relationship and reasons why he hasn’t made the progress expected. Essentially Walcott is trying to be the wrong player at the wrong club for him where a combination of tactical mismatching and personal failings which have led to his stagnation.

Thierry Henry’s eventual departure for pastures new in 2007 allowed Wenger to truly press on with his protracted love affair with tiki taka style possession football. Henry’s directness and effectiveness in breaking an offside trap had meant that whilst always a quality attacking side, the long ball or rapid counter from deep had been a feature of Arsenals play. With Henry no longer exerting his strong influence over the side, Wenger set his sights stubbornly on a brand of possession football brought to the world’s attention by the success of Barcelona and Spain. The tactic mastered by Messi, Xavi and Villa et al demands an outstanding first touch, pinpoint delivery and most importantly a set of players with exceptional footballing brains tuned into the same wave length.

This regretfully is completely at odds with where Walcott’s strengths as a footballer lie and exposes his most damming weakness. Blessed with the pace to give any full back kittens Walcott does not fit in with this vision of the game as it robs him of his main ally – space to run at or into. Walcott as we see from these clips can be devastatingly effective when given space or an early ball to latch on to. However too often Arsenals slow build up and refusal to gamble on an early through ball means Walcott gets dragged into a laboured build up that he is not technically equipped to succeed at.

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  • g clarke says:

    your are right walcott should move on for own good m u would suit his game and bring him on.to play the way arsenal does requires a good engine closs control good awareness and passing ability others strugle to have all thats needed aa cham are same not to say they are bad players. the young players coming up seem to have it all.

  • n1 gooner says:

    Walcott’s not going anywhere,he is 22 and it’s getting better every year,the stats back that up.

    People who say that theo is not getting on at Arsenal are talking out there rear end.Injury’s have been the only thing that has held this boy back.Let theo be and your see that he will become a great player for the Arsenal.

  • goonerboy says:

    Arsenal are currently lacking a play maker and Walcott does not get the incisive passes he did when Fabregas was in the side-but he will have to adapt and improve his own delivery of the ball.
    There is an element of truth in this-but only an element-Walcott is a young player still finding his level- probably expectations were too high too early. He is only now starting to cope physically with playing twice per week and then he remains very inconsistent.
    He has attributes-and when playing on the break he can be dangerous-but he can also be wasteful.Walcott does see plenty of the ball for Arsenal-unfortunately-he does not do enough with it-and that is not because of possession football played by the team.

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