Joni Mitchell was right! It really is hard to see what you’ve got until it’s gone. Sunday’s game against Stoke provided a great opportunity to reflect on the value of Theo Walcott.
Walcott is, to most Gooners, a top quality player. This being said he still, above any other player, provokes instant debate. I have witnessed several heated discussions from the relative safety of my twitter account (@arseeasy). He is and always will be a little bit ‘Marmite’. Personally, I rate him as one of our most important players. If I think back to January, when he was negotiating his new contract, the popular opinion was that we wanted him to stay. At the time he was in great form, although my opinion was slightly different to that of my friends. I wasn’t so much eager for him to stay as I was desperate for him not to leave. There is a subtle difference in that I didn’t really value him as a key player but I just knew that had he left for another Premier League club it would almost certainly have been a decision that would come back to haunt us.
Deep down I just knew that he was ‘quality’, but for some reason I had doubts. This is because his value is not always visible on the surface. This is a topic I have discussed many times before, although it hasn’t come up yet this season. I started to re-visit this quandry during the Marseille game: I was watching with two other Gooners, who were less than impressed with Walcott’s performance in the first half. His first touch was a little heavy and when he had time on the ball he was often loosing possession quite cheaply. This was an observation contradicted by Alan Smith who was on summarising duties at the time. Alan started to talk about how Theo was providing ‘a constant threat down the right flank’. This started me wondering what I was missing.
It was only when I was watching the Stoke game that I fully appreciated the more intangible side of Theo Walcott. With a player like Santi Cazorla you can see what he does. He has brilliant ball control, can thread a pass through a tight space: he controls the game. With Walcott it is as much about what he could do as it is what he actually does. He is a secret weapon, a glass cannon, a wildcard. He poses a threat which has to be respected. His pace alone puts defenders on edge. When Walcott plays, he forces the opposition to adjust before the whistle even blows. Walcott gives us something that no-one else can (except possibly Ryo Miyachi, in the future). If a team ignores him he will punish them, and if they adjust their game to counter his attacking potential he’s essentially done his job before a ball has been kicked. This wouldn’t sound too impressive apart from the fact it takes more than just a left back to keep him out. In simple numbers it’s like trading one of our players for one and a half of theirs.
It also became evident on Sunday that his discipline to stay wide has massively improved. Now, I thought Gnabry did very well, doubly so if you consider the circumstances of his inclusion and the physical nature of the opponent. He did, however, naturally drift a long way infield and at times picked up the ball quite deep. This allowed Stoke more options down the left hand side. Walcott isn’t known for his defensive capabilities, but again I refer to the intangible effect he has. He isn’t the best defender but his pace and guile forces a team to play deeper. This is taking the saying ‘the best defence is a good offence’ quite literally.
Theo Walcott will continue to frustrate fans and pundits for his whole career. He will run into defenders, loose the ball, over-hit a pass and deliver a cross which can only be reached by The Jolly Green Giant. He will however also tear defences apart, frighten opposition managers and always provide hope that something amazing is about to happen. Maybe not this game, maybe not even this month but over the course of a season it will happen more than enough to justify his name on the team sheet week in, week out. Let us all hope that his sweet finish in Marseille might be the catalyst to kick-start his season.