In yet another indication that Arsenal will not be buying a new striker, Wenger started Theo Walcott as centre-forward against Wolfsburg yesterday, and the Englishman scored the winning goal. I am now thinking that Walcott is waiting for Wenger to give him proof that he will not be bringing in more competition up front before he signs his new contract, and Wenger is saying the right things to soothe Theo’s ego.
After Walcott made sure that Arsenal won the Emirates Cup Le Prof was asked if Theo had signed his contract. He replied: “Not yet but we’re getting closer and closer. Hopefully we can finalise it very soon,”
“It was another goal for Theo and I’m not surprised by that because I played him through the middle.
“I’ve always said that he’s a goalscorer because he has the movement, he has the timing of the run, the speed for the finishing, and he has an eye for taking his chances at the right moments.
“When he gets into these positions he finishes well. Yesterday he nearly scored when he came on as a substitute, today he scored. I believe that Theo will score goals.”
Wenger brought on Akpom later in the game and Wacott was moved out to the left. The Boss was therefore asked what he thought Walcott’s best position was. “It’s a good question because it’s a complicated answer. I think in all the three positions.” Wenger replied. “If you ask him where he loves to play, I believe that even he will say that it depends a little bit on the period.
“Sometimes he prefers left. When I’ve played him on the left he likes it as well because if he makes a good run he can score goals as well.In his ideal world he would like to play with a strong guy next to him, a player who is very strong physically, and play off him. We have so many offensive players which makes that very difficult to combine all of them together.
“He’s not an aggressive striker, he’s a mobile striker.
“He’s the striker who lives from the quality of his movement and the speed of his movement.
“He turns up in the right spaces in the box and you cannot give that to a player.
“He anticipates well, he understands quickly and when that is linked with his speed and execution it always makes him very dangerous.”
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
We need WORLD CLASS in ALL Positions
Sell Walcott, Oxlade and Welbeck.Sell Giroud and Akpom
Sign Reus, Greizmann and Pedro for the wings
Sign Cavani and Benzema for CF.
Use the £300 millon Lord Harris says we have.
Are you Hafiz in disguise?
The interesting thing is……….
YOU don’t get to decide what is good enough and what is not. You can stomp your feet and hold your breath and Wenger will still do what HE thinks is best.
Sell Koscielny and Chambers as well, worst defenders in our team. Oh boy, Ozil and Sanchez has not delivered from that hefty price tag, compare that to Coquelin free but he is npw our best player.
Wengee out
dude….you must be on something special
Spud Infiltrator
Why dont we resign Chamakh, guy has potencial and he knows team, Wenger bring him back
now wenger loves that…i bet he would donate his jacket to you if he saw your comment
yes walcott will surely score goals, but not 20 goals plus. i wish winger forget about this striker trauma for now and sign a deadly winger like reus. with reus, sanchez,ox/walcott. striker or no striker goals will be many.
Walcott has already scored 20+ goals in a season from the RW. Are you saying the playing centrally will decrease his goal scoring totals?? Seriously??
Just watched Arshavin’s 4 goals in Sky’s EPL moments. Boy do I miss him :-(. The Arsenal side of Fabregas-Arshavin-Nasri played some really amazing footie.
we only had to maintain that side for one more season and get them a quality cb(even mert could have done the job) and a top dm like matic, then a fully fit van persie and the sky could have been the limit for us…if the club had real ambition, then i think that was possible cz we were not bankrupt or something
Back then i was no scared to no other team in the world. It was only Arsenal who scared me the most. We where playing some nice football, and created so many chances. But players like Almunia, geee. Facked up.
Walcott will score 20 – 25 goals if played as our main striker next season. I’m confident about that.
History supports your contention. When Walcott was healthy he already scored 20+ goals from the RW. Playing centrally should only add to the total.
I agree but have mixed feelings with him clearly being able to score from the RW. Figures for a few other well known wingers/wide forwards for last 3 seasons, league goals per game:
Robben: 0.51
Bale: 0.48
Reus: 0.45
Alexis: 0.44 🙂
Depay: 0.41
Walcott: 0.40 🙂
Ribery: 0.39
Hazard: 0.36
Pedro: 0.28
Cuadrado: 0.25
Lavezzi: 0.22
Di Maria: 0.15
Willian: 0.09
Young: 0.06
As you can see our 2 wide boys are in pretty good company. If you add Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar on to the list, all deployed as wingers/wide forwards you can sort of see how prolific goal-scoring at CF has become less critical/fashionable. When you think one of the most raved over CFs on this site, Diego Costa, has a career league goal/game rate of 0.40 the numbers above are quite impressive.
OT…Any one knows where that guys…Krystian Bielik is????
he was bought for a lot money for a 16 year old…Didn’t see him even in the Subs…..
Where is he?????
Coming back from a small injury. Nothing serious
“In his ideal world he would like to play with a strong guy next to him, a player who is very strong physically, and play off him”……
Holy sh*t wenger you are clearly talking of your favorite player giroud….i bet you would even offer him a life contract at arsenal…
what the f**k is sooo special that you guys and wenger see in the big guy that i don’t ???….please guys enlighten me cz am now starting to question my mental status
Maybe he’s hinting at a shock move for Ibrahimovic? 😉
based on ibrahimovic’s ego and their past relationship, i highly doubt it….don’t bother fantasizing on anyone…these is clearly giroud
That is actually what annoys me most about Wenger, he keeps his formation the same regardless of the players at his disposal and even though he sees players could benefit from some changes. I think it would benefit Giroud and Walcott, even Sanchez to go 2 up front sometimes, Giroud is not as mobile, but good touches and the “HOLD UP PLAY” would be utilized, because he has a mobile guy near by. Regardless, I like our forwards, I like their variety, honestly don’t feel we are that desperate for an upgrade, I think Wenger needs to rotate more, sub earlier in games and keep the forwards fit and on their toes.
Well, his formation doesn’t stay entirely the same. He tweaks it between years, but rarely changes it at all in the middle of a season. It looks like he has adjusted Ozil to press more and run toward the left side on counters as an outlet over the top. This will make Giroud more effective. It’s more that the style of play is always about the same. He wants the holdup play to get numbers forward mixed with Walcott’s ability to turn any play into a counter. It’s a solid strategy, but teams know exactly what is coming in almost every game.
However, I still prefer Walcott through the middle. We should have the players to keep it in the midfield. Depending on health, we have plenty of good dribblers in Ox, Wilshere, Cazorla, and Sanchez. As long as they keep the ball well, we have no dire need for a holdup striker. The quick runs from Walcott, Sanchez, Ox, and Ozil should make up for that in chances created. As long as the midfield and defense are solid, these guys will create chance after chance.
It is a different style of play, which I believe is more of an issue with Arsene than the formation.
Honestly, I think the only hope for Walcott starting through the middle regularly is Bellerin. I don’t think Arsene will trust him as a defender yet, so he will probably try to pair him with Ox, Welbeck, or Ramsey on the right until he feels like he can trust him with Walcott in front of him. If Walcott is on the RW, I think Debuchy will nearly always be the fullback behind him.
I wish Robin was around with this current team of ours. Gee
If RVP had stayed he would have become an Arsenal legend. Instead he sold his soul to the devil, got humiliated by his pal and former Netherlands manager, and was shipped out to never, never land, never to be seen again.
but he won the league which we haven’t yet….that could be a piece of history that we could not have given him
We’ve won the league as well buddy. Did you skip your Arsenal history lessons?
yah we have but the timing of his age and our current situation might not have been favorable….you realize that we have not won the league in 10 yrs and its no guarantee that we will win it next season….but no need to argue..fab won, nasri won, van p won, eboue won, another like 50 others have won so to them when they look back in their lives, they will have no regrets if we don’t win it in the next 2 yrs
Hehehe. It has been so long that it feels that we havent never won it. Lol. Kinda sad, dont you thingk?
He has the trophy and the money. We have the Donkey and the money 25mil and no Epl title.
Yes. But when you sell your soul to the devil you don’t sell it for free. That league title was the sale price. Worth it? You decide.
*yaaaawwwn* Boring
Lets spend some money!
Strip Club??? Count me in.
If you guys think Giroud is slow now, Wait till he turns 34
hahahaha
Since we in the spirit of saying stupid things…….why not send cech on loan n buy valdes, since the grass on the other side of Arsenal is alwayz greener
Hahaha but what do you guys think about this situation we are in.What if we dont sign a striker then what happens and also a DM tell me what happens?I just want to hear from you guys.
We’ll be DOOMED, DOOMED I tell ya!
I definitely agree theo will score 20+ this season if he stays fit i believe wilshere will also have a huge part to play providing he also stays fit
with sanchez not playing first few weeks it is up to the ox to provide competition and try a take his lw position
i would like to see wenger operate with giroud and theo up top vs chelsea just to see if they have the chemistry to play together with giroud laying up to ozil who will find the killer ball to theo
if ramsey, alexis, ozil, walcott, wilshere can all stay fit then there is no reason we cannot win the league or give chelsea a run for their money
the only position im wary about is cdm if coquelin gets injured cazorla will have to play with flamini or arteta both cannot run and do not have the tenacity of coquelin
As our no. 2 cdm i would give it to chambers he is quicker and had the defensive awareness to play there he would just have to keep passing to cazorla