Theo Walcott, is there more to come?

By Walter Broeckx

In another article I wrote about the new boys and more specific the new attacking players and how they contributed to the team this season.

Now let us talk about the “old” boy playing up front who is in fact the youngest of them all: Theo Walcott.

Has there been a young player that has divided opinion more than him? Ramsey maybe? We had the usual lot calling him a waste of space. Not good enough and never will be good enough. Ah, you know the things people say who have no patience and who want that a player is the finished product from day one.

Of course I must admit that at times Theo could make you pull your hair out in the first years. But what I always saw was that he was being polished. Slowly (contradictory to his burning pace) you could see him changing. But the tag of just being a fast runner with no technique remained firmly on him. The tag put on him by brainless pundits that Theo had no football brain is something that will always follow him.

A few things we should remember is that in his first years he suffered a lot of injuries. Both his shoulders had to fixed a few times. But after surgery on both shoulders this has gone away. And after that he also suffered a few injuries being kicked to pieces on more than one occasion. Too soft and only speed and no end product was the word. But as usual Wenger kept the faith. Ignored the ones who said he knew nothing. And he kept on working on Theo and developing his game.

And now Theo is entering his prime years. From now on one could say he has grown up. He is 24 years old (or young from my point of view). His best years are lying in front of him. And being tied down to a long contract since this winter it is ours to enjoy.

Theo wanted to play more in the middle and on a few occasions he got the chance to play there. With mixed success one could say. But not every game can be a goal feast. Even Messi messes up at times in front of goal. So why not Walcott. It’s part of the game. Most of the times Walcott is deployed more as a winger however. And let us have a look at his stats in this season. And take in account that these are the stats of a winger.

Now if we look at this season we see that Walcott played in 43 games in total. And he started in 31 games and came on in 12. And as we all know that means that he got in those 12 games a maximum of 20 minutes playing time. And in those games he scored 21 goals and gave 17 assists. That is a goal contribution of 38 goals in total for the season. Not that bad for a never will be good enough player I would say. Now this means that he contributes to 0.88 goals per game one could say. Or in other words when Walcott plays he is good for almost one goal per game. On average of course. I don’t know how that sounds to you but for me this sounds rather fine.

How good is it? Well I took the liberty to look at the stats of what can be considered the best forward in the league. This season. And the last. A player who plays as a real centre forward. The main player for his team this season and the season before. Yep sorry to bring up his name. Robin Van Persie.

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And I will show you the same numbers for the season just gone by for Walcott and RVP.

Name Games Goals Assists Total Goal ratio/game Walcott 43 (31+12) 21 17 38 0.88 RVP 48 (40+8) 30 13 43 0.89

I know that in total numbers Van Persie is showing much better numbers. But when you look at game time and then look at how many they contribute to scoring goals in total we can see that there is almost no difference between Walcott and Van Persie. I know that Walcott is no Van Persie. He doesn’t have to be a Van Persie. They are different type of player. The one more a ball caresser and the other his game is more based on speed. But at the end of the day what counts is how many goals do they contribute to their team. And then it seems that Walcott is almost as good as Van Persie.



But what is the most interesting bit is that at this point in his career Van Persie had a goal contribution ratio between 0.30 and 0.45. And now Theo is on 0.88 goals per game.

If we look at the minutes actually played we see that Van Persie played 3948 minutes last season and having been involved in 43 goals this means that he has been involved in a goal every 91 minutes. Walcott has played 2987 minutes in total and this means that he has been involved in a goal every 78 minutes. This is rather impressive for Walcott I would say.

The thing that excites me most is like I said before, that Walcott has been developed by Wenger. And we all know what Wenger can do with fast wingers and turning them in to goal scorers. I could name Henry. I could even add Van Persie because lets be honest who thought that Van Persie would become the centre forward he is during his injured years? Only one man I think. Most declared him an old fool when he started playing Van Persie as a centre forward. But look what Wenger made of him. And who knows is he doing the trick again with Walcott? We will know it in some 4-5 years. But surely things look great.

And to show you how much Walcott has improved I will show you the stats over the last season.

Walcott Games Goals Assists Total Goal ratio/game 2009-2010 30 4 2 6 0.2 2010-2011 38 13 9 22 0.57 2011-2012 46 11 13 24 0.52 2012-2013 43 21 17 38 0.88

Just look at the total goal contribution he is making and how his numbers are rising to Van Persie levels.

It is clear to see that Theo has developed over the last 4 years. From a weak young boy in to a stronger and still very fast man. And by becoming more adult he also has learned to be more calm in front of goal or to pick the right pass at the right time.



No football brains you said? I wonder who it really is who has no football brains. Theo or the pundits?