Has he got what it takes?
Whenever Arsenal and strikers are involved, a certain model needs to be met. We have never bowed into thinking the likes of Darren Bent were the saviours, because anyone with half a brain will know that in our team, we don’t have players who just score goals. We have always had players that contribute heavily in our build up play, whether it be Henry, Adebayor, Bendtner, Chamakh or Giroud (that isn’t to say the likes of Chamakh are brilliant, but it’s undeniable that he links the play fairly well). It is now time for Theo Walcott to develop into a player who doesn’t just suit the high line defence but can be a striker of all circumstances. I’ve long been of the thought that he simply doesn’t have the attributes to play that consistently in OUR system. His impressive hat trick vs Newcastle doesn’t change my mind simply because we saw what can happen in the first half.
We continuously looked for hopeful balls over the top, struggled to maintain possession due to a lack of options centrally and simply could not make the ball stick up front. Walcott done a man marking job on Perch and Coloccini and always waited for the through ball to arrive. As John Barnes stated, “With Theo Walcott, he’ll either score a goal or give the ball away” and considering we are a team known for possession football we can’t afford to do that. So we’ve come down to this, here are some things I’d like to see Walcott and Arsenal improve on before he convinces me that he can be a full time striker for us.
1) Learn to come short
This is the most important. A lot of quite frankly, tactically naive, fans seem to think that because Walcott is quick, him standing on the shoulder for 90 minutes will ensure that he scores a bucket load every game because it probably works on FIFA. That couldn’t be more the case, as described earlier we have always had strikers who are comfortable with the ball at their feet when the tempo of the game isn’t 100mph, so if he learns to come short it allows our midfielder to play an extra lateral pass and bring others into play. Building our possession from the back and through the pitch is critical for us to win matches, we’re not going to win matches playing the counter attack, we just don’t have the defence to soak up that kind of pressure. If he stays attached onto defenders then receives the ball to feet, the defender isn’t more than a couple of yards away and will undoubtedly muscle him off. However should he come deeper before sprinting off, he poses the opposition defenders a problem, either they go with him and leave a massive hole for the wingers to exploit (or get beaten by a turn-and-go from Theo) or they leave him alone and allow him to pick up a free pass.
2) Don’t be one dimensional
A lot of the runs made by Theo are insanely basic. Half turn, half a yard ahead of the defender and go. He is better than this and needs to learn to make runs that crosses paths with other players which will lead to them being able to take advantage of space left by Theo. This is something he doesn’t do enough, coaches will tell you that your runs don’t always have to be for yourself and if Theo learns to drag players across the pitch rather than always taking them towards goal, other players will benefit.
Lastly, Arsenal you don’t get away with it either.
3) Don’t always look for Theo and press the ball higher
Too many times in the first half we looked for Walcott when the ball just wasn’t on, this shows the team is either buying into “Walcott can win any foot race, lets put it in any space for him to chase” or are not being given enough options through midfield which starts at the strikers. We need to learn to play through midfield and get ourselves into a position first and foremost to play Theo in, AND THEN look for the passes that will get him on goal, not just lumping it at any given opportunity. Lastly, there is no coincidence that our attacking performance improved in the second half because we were winning the ball in higher areas of the pitch and instantly Newcastle’s defenders dropped because of the pace of Theo, Chamberlain and Podolski in behind and that is how we imposed our dominance. Do more of this and we will see the best not only of Theo but of our other attackers.
I’ve said on previous occassions how I feel about Walcott up front but for the sake of Arsenal doing well, I want to be proved wrong. However I still feel there is a lot for Walcott to do, as many have pointed out that it’s only three games and Walcott is still getting used to it, the same argument can be stated that it’s only three games and in the bigger picture (something a lot of fans can’t seem to grasp because they only see Theo scoring and not possession being 75% in the away team’s favour) he hasn’t proved anything yet.
I’m always up for a discussion and will accept any intelligent arguments, intelligent is the key word because I’ve seen some stuff today where it just boggles my mind. Anyway, thanks for reading, please share it around because I wrote this wholeheartedly. See you guys on Twitter. COYG.
By Zaheer Shah
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