Get Theo playing as if he’s Michael Owen
JUNE 30, 1998, 9.16pm, Stade Geoffroy- Guichard, Saint-etienne. Michael Owen scores a goal to put England 2-1 ahead in a World Cup last-16 match with Argentina. He collects the ball from David Beckham just inside Argentina’s half and runs, straight, shrugging off the attentions of defender Jose Chamot. As Owen approaches the penalty area, Roberto Ayala, at the time regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the world, is waiting. Owen fades right to create his angle and strikes his shot across goalkeeper Carlos Roa.
It remains one of the most memorable goals of the modern era in English football, drawing comparisons with Jimmy Greaves in its ferocious, yet simple, perfection. Owen was 18. Sadly, he would only have three more international tournaments to fully display his talent to the world.
Now imagine that goal replicated by a current England player in the opening group game of Euro 2012. Who would be the scorer? Not Wayne Rooney, he is suspended. Not Darren Bent, he is injured. One of a trio of strikers selected by Stuart Pearce for t onight’s match with Holland? Unlikely.
They are all talented, and quick, but do not have the sheer audacity that marked Owen’s career as a teenager. There is only one player in the current England squad that might be capable of scoring like that. Theo Walcott. Not just on the back of two goals against Tottenham Hotspur, but based on the evidence of goals against good teams, consistently, throughout his career. Walcott scores against the best defenders, and the best defences; indeed six of his eight goals this season have come against teams either competing in the Champions League or residing in Champions League qualifying positions: Udinese (home and away), Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham. He has scored against AC Milan, and Barcelona, too, on a night when he turned the game in Arsenal’s favour from 2-0 down.
Half of Andy Carroll’s six goals for Liverpool this season have come against teams outside the Barclays Premier League — Exeter City, Oldham Athletic and Brighton and Hove Albion. By contrast Walcott often saves his best for the best.
That was what he did in Zagreb on September 10, 2008, when his three goals helped England defeat Croatia 4-1, the high point of Fabio Capello’s t enure. Croatia had prevented England from attending the previous tournament, Euro 2008, and had never lost a competitive match at home, but Walcott’s finishing was masterful for a 19- year- old. He scored the f i rst competitive hat-trick for England since Owen in 2001.
And that is it. His sole goalscoring appearance in an England shirt: 21 matches, three goals, all within the space of 56 minutes. Yet do not let that fool you. Walcott’s ratio may be inferior to some international rivals, not least Ashley Young, who has four in 18 caps, but he has never been used as a striker. It is a position he covets, for club as much as country, but Capello in particular demanded he hug the touchline. Indeed, failure to do so cost him his England place.
It is an irony of Walcott’s career that he travelled to the World Cup that should have been beyond him — in 2006 when Sven Goran Eriksson took the ludicrous decision to select him blind before he had played for Arsenal — but did not make the one he should have, South Africa in 2010. Walcott was dropped for ignoring Capello’s instruction to stay wide in two friendly appearances. Capello later admitted he made a mistake.
So the jury is out, because Walcott has never been in as the focal point of England’s attack. It is time that changed. Pearce would already appear to have made his mind up tonight, with Danny Welbeck the central striker and Walcott and Daniel Sturridge either side, but there is still time. Harry Redknapp, England’s manager-elect, is a big Walcott fan and with options so limited up front — at least until Rooney has served his twogame suspension — may be interested to see Walcott in the role in the two spring friendly games.
Ian Wright, the former Arsenal striker, i s presently advocating Walcott as Arsenal’s spearhead, to return Robin van Persie to his
supporting role, but this seems a needless complication.
Van Persie has been stunning this year and shows no sign of tiring. If England had Van Persie as a striker the need to inspect Walcott’s credentials would not be so great. The fact is, England’s manager in Ukraine this summer will be forced to work with relative novices — Pearce’s call- up of Fraizer Campbell shows how limited the resources are — or recall a warhorse l i ke Peter Crouch, whose presence can make England’s midfield more direct than is healthy.
The other benefit of Walcott played centrally is that it finds r oom f or Sturridge, Young, perhaps even Alex OxladeChamberlain either side.
If the front line then misses the craft of Rooney, it at least provides the other element that terrorises defenders: pace. John Terry, Ledley King, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling: Walcott has hardly been scoring against mugs this season, and even Barcelona’s back four were intimidated by his speed.
Owen’s urgency undid Argentina, and later Germany in Munich, and it was the means by which Walcott dragged Arsenal back into the game with Barcelona in 2010.
Redknapp certainly knows the effectiveness of this simple trait, having seen Gareth Bale destroy Inter Milan in last season’s Champions League.
Sometimes speed can be Walcott’s undoing, too, of course. For his first goal against Tottenham on Sunday, he arrived so fast that his initial touch was weak. His recovery and neat chip over the goalkeeper, however, revealed a player with a striker’s instinct and, increasingly, more of a football brain than his critics identify. It is as if Walcott is an easy target, baby- faced and perceived as middle class and over-privileged because Eriksson took him to the World Cup too soon.
It is often forgotten that he is still just 22. In Milan two weeks ago, Walcott was poor for Arsenal and was removed at half-time; yet again he was playing in a wide position. Arsenal’s midfield was desperately sluggish that night and slow ball is as much a curse to a winger in football as it is in rugby, but few make excuses for Walcott. Judging by the reaction of even his home crowd at Arsenal, he is a soft target and many pick on him, without appreciating the uniquely tailored service a player with his strengths requires.
Could Sturridge give England a Walcott-like explosion of energy, too? Perhaps. He has 11 goals for Chelsea this season, but only one since December 22, against Birmingham City in the FA Cup. Welbeck is more of a replacement for a target-man striker in the style of Bent, but his rate is hardly prolific, just one more goal than Walcott, despite featuring in 28 matches for Manchester United this season.
Even so, we will, in all likelihood, find out about Welbeck, Sturridge and perhaps even Campbell tonight against Holland, while Walcott’s potential r emains untapped.
He may be the best, the most direct, the most natural finisher since Owen; he may be the one player capable of provoking genuine fear from opponents made cocksure by the absence of Rooney.
He may even, as Sir Alex Ferguson once said of Craig Bellamy, be able to catch pigeons. We just do not know; and each time 90 minutes passes without finding out, it is in some small way wasted. Although lucky for the pigeons.