Walcott can't cross

[yanno]

So much for l'arse's supposedly world class technical coaching of Wenger's kiddies.

According to the Super Soaraway, young Theo's timing and delivery of crosses to Peter Crouch in training was dreadful, and led directly to his omission from the squad. :grin:

I saw Walcott blow his chance

HERE'S how England's Austrian training camp turned into a World Cup nightmare for Theo Walcott.

On Thursday I was one of a handful of onlookers as the Arsenal flier worked with Peter Crouch, away from the rest of the party.


It was a session designed to help Crouch's finishing.


Walcott's remit in the 15-minute workout was simple: Get the ball in, unopposed, for the Spurs hitman to finish.


Yet barndoor and beachball sprung to mind as the young Gunner failed time and again to tee up his team-mate.


Balls flew over 6ft 7in Crouch's head, he had to check his run as the cross was too low or behind him. He even resorted to catching and throwing the ball back for Walcott to try again.


Things did not improve 24 hours later as Walcott and fellow hopeful Adam Johnson pinged 25-yard passes across the pitch to each other.


No frills - simply pass, control and drill it back.


Yet while Johnson was near foot-perfect, Walcott's touch was woeful, as balls invariably drifted yards away from him.


Capello kept his thoughts to himself, bar the odd word or two. But yesterday those thoughts became evident to all.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2995806/I-saw-Walcott-blow-his-chance.html#ixzz0pinRsQb7

 

[thinktank]

No surprise there.

 

[mil1lion]

I'm surprised he hasn't been converted to a striker. He is clearly not a winger. If he could time his runs well, he could be a quality striker.

 

[donny1013]

I'm surprised he hasn't been converted to a striker. He is clearly not a winger. If he could time his runs well, he could be a quality striker.

I agree, and have thought that for a while. He has actually showed when the opportunity has presented itself in matches, that he can finish with both feet and obviously he has ridiculous pace. He just hasn't got the technique or brain to be an effective wide midfield player, only so many times knock it round the full back and run is going to work, but even then he doesn't know what to do after that.

 

[jamesc0le]

i dont think he's a bad player, he just doesn't possess the aggressive streak in his nature that would help him cope with the adversity this season has shown him, through injury, form and criticism. he will, undoubtedly, improve.

--

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philmcnulty/2010/06/walcott_the_victim_of_capello.html
Theo Walcott will spend his summer doing exactly what he did four years ago - playing the part of an idle bystander watching England attempting to win the World Cup. But there is a crucial and personally devastating difference this time around.
Turn the clock back to Baden-Baden in 2006 and Walcott was simply happy - and probably utterly bemused - to be in Germany. The big story in Sven-Goran Eriksson's final squad, the Arsenal player was a nonsensical selection that had cynics suggesting the Swede was revealing a hitherto undetected sense of humour by picking a player he had only previously seen in training.
Now, four years on, Walcott is headline news again following England's chaotic World Cup squad announcement, the hat-trick hero of the crucial qualifying win in Croatia ruthlessly dumped on the scrapheap by Fabio Capello ahead of the South African campaign.
Walcott would have been banking on being on the plane that left Heathrow on Wednesday until he received Capello's fateful phone call while on the golf course - and in an instant his fall from grace since that balmy night in Zagreb was brutally underlined.
Now he will have all summer - and a World Cup - to reflect on his failure to develop into the world-class attacking talent we all thought we were watching in September 2008.
Walcott's exclusion can be justified by Capello on the grounds he has produced little of huge significance since, his career stalling on the twin obstacles of injury and lack of form.

He cannot draw on the reservoir of goodwill he created in Croatia forever and has not been good enough. Capello has called time, albeit temporarily, on his England career and delivered a harsh lesson that results are what he requires from his players.
Capello has been a big Walcott supporter, but the player's failings were evident against Mexico at Wembley last week. The burning pace was there, the ability to beat a man was there, but so was the lack of end product that has presumably weighed so heavily against him in Capello's calculations.
As for the man who has presumably pinched Walcott's seat on the plane, namely Manchester City's Shaun Wright-Phillips, he hardly boasts a glowing list of England achievements himself.
Aaron Lennon would have been my choice ahead of Walcott for the right-flank slot, despite the Tottenham man's injury problems, but the Arsenal attacker's potentially destructive speed would have made him a worthwhile understudy as an impact substitute.
This role will now be filled by the highly fortunate Wright-Phillips, unless Capello has another plan in mind. I have never been convinced by Wright-Phillips at international level - and his form at Eastlands faded to such an extent last season that he was overtaken by the excellent Adam Johnson, also left out by Capello.
Johnson did not have quite enough time to mount his full case for inclusion, but he is a real talent and will surely have plenty of opportunities in the future.
Walcott, for his part, must go back to Arsenal - and the safe hands of Arsene Wenger - to reconstruct the elements of his game that compelled Capello to dispose of him from his World Cup plans.
BBC pundit Chris Waddle drew a strong response from Wenger last season when he said the following about Walcott: "I've never seen him develop. He just doesn't understand the game for me - where to be running, when to run inside a full-back, when to just play a one-two. It's all off the cuff.
"I just don't think he's got a football brain and he's going to have problems. Let's be honest, good defenders would catch him offside every time."
It may just be that Capello concurs, but Walcott is a highly-intelligent individual, not to mention dignified judging by his response to being omitted, so no-one should believe the final credits have rolled on his England career.


(continued at link above)

 

[NickHSpurs]

Them comments from Wenger are pretty damning from someone who sees the lad train every day! Sign him up Harry and turn him into a star :lol:

 

[Kendall]

I know we love a gooner getting shit and it is justice that he's been left out. But he is not a bad player. He is simply a player who at 20/21 had limited ability, his ability was to run and beat a man. After his injury he seemed to lose that (much like Lennon seemed to in his 2nd/3rd season). It looked like defenders had gotten wise to him.

The issue then is that Walcott has started to think. Pacey wingers should never really think, they should rely on their ability, the speed that comes with not thinking that makes them so deadly. Walcott has lost all confidence in the ability he once had and he's struggling so hard to get it back.

So there's no surprise he couldn't even put a ball onto crouchy's head, unchallenged. The lad was clearly a nervous wreck by this point and with all eyes on him, he has cracked under the pressure.

lennon has gone through similar but thankfully has come out the other side.

 

[Kendall]

Them comments from Wenger are pretty damning from someone who sees the lad train every day! Sign him up Harry and turn him into a star :lol:

That was Waddle's quotes

 

[NickHSpurs]

That was Waddle's quotes

My bad, didn't read it properly, thought it said the response was from Wenger

 

[C0YS]

The difference is though Lennon actually has a football brain (a very much underrated one), as does Wright-Phillips, when they get the ball, they know what they want to do with it. Example when players get tight on Lennon he would attempt to do them with pace, but when players mark the space Lennon would normally run into he has learnt to stand back and deliver a now quite accurate ball into the box (see Croatia for more details). Lennon isn't just quick he has tricks to go with it, he has a good sense of space, and is quick on the turn, He can out-manoeuvre his adversary not only out-pace him.

All that said Walcott has the makings to be a fine England player, probably as a striker. He's clearly no winger and is only played there thanks to his pace. He does need to develop. He is not yet England standard, something he could become. Then again he is only 21 most players are not England standard at 21. For him he needs to come back stronger and prove that he is a good footballer player. Dare I say it I think he needs to come out of his shell at Arsenal and move to a club that will play him regularly and consistently in his preferred position (whatever that may be) rather then continue as a impact player based on space.

Finally I will leave you with a quote from Arsenal Mania

if he were playing for Everton, everybody would think Capello is mad for even considering him

 

[mil1lion]

I would sit him down and have him watch hours and hours of Samuel Eto'o footage. That is the type of player he should develop into up front. He's still young, he just needs to regain confidence again.

The big question is, does he have the character to do that. Missing out on the World Cup will either knock him further back, or make him more determined.

 

[ExpatFan]

There was never a logical explanation as to why he was taken to the last World Cup. I heard a lot of rumours flying around as to why and one in particular was frighteningly conspiratorial. But does anyone know the real reason Sven chose someone he'd only ever seen in training and who had never, at that point, started a Premier League match?

 

[brasil_spur]

Dare I say it I think he needs to come out of his shell at Arsenal and move to a club that will play him regularly and consistently in his preferred position (whatever that may be) rather then continue as a impact player based on space.

Agree completely with your comments, and most of all with this one. This is exactly what he needs to do, he's being played in a totally wrong way at the scum and just doesn't have anything other than pace as a winger. He's most effective cutting inside and getting into the box, which is what a striker should be doing.