Much has been made lately of Alan Hansen and Chris Waddle’s remarks about Theo’s “footballing brain” and I wanted to take just a few seconds to expose their comments as either intentionally controversial fabrications designed to elevate the two into the fore of the public’s conscience or just outright stupid comments made by people who have not watched the games they are commenting on.
Former Tottenham winger, Chris Waddle, kicked off all this discussion about Theo’s ability when he made remarks that were not so much criticism as they were invective disguised as criticism. Before the World Cup Waddle was recorded making a long rant about Theo’s ability to think without the ball. It was a meandering commentary that said contradictory things but the one that stuck out, because it was so definitive was this one:
I just don’t think he’s got a football brain and he’s going to have problems. Eventually he could play up front, but would he know where to run? Let’s be honest, good defenders would catch him offside every time.
It was part of the larger criticism that Theo has never progressed. That he was essentially the same player as when he played for Southampton:
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 was a laughable comment from an obviously bitter old man. The problem is that there was a kernel of truth to the comment, Theo’s development had been stunted but not because he’s a footballing mentalist but instead by the multiple injuries he had suffered and surgeries he underwent.
In that same rant, Waddle made pains to compare Theo to Wayne Rooney and made the comment that by 21 Rooney already had the footballing brain that Walcott lacked. But if you look at the difference in total number of games that both players have gotten you can see why Theo might be a little behind England’s-greatest-ever-player-who-can’t-score-in-a-World-Cup-Final.
In all competitions to date, Theo Walcott has only played in 176 matches. In that same time (by age 21) Rooney had played in 292 matches. That’s an amazing 114 matches more than Theo or 60% more matches than the Arsenal forward.
The criticism is even more disingenuous because it imagines that we can somehow think back to Rooney’s 21st year without having our judgment clouded by what we know now about the player now. You have to remember that Wayne Rooney at 21 was the guy who had just been sent off by his own teammate at the World Cup and at the time people were talking about what a poor attitude the striker had. Since that season, Rooney has absolutely blossomed into the forward that he is today; a diving, cheating, Manchester United prototype forward who can’t score in the World Cup. And it’s only taken him an additional 124 matches.
I love the comment, though, that Walcott will never be able to stay onside. I spent some time this morning watching some of CWDs various videos of Walcott and if anything, Theo is one of the best strikers I have ever seen in timing his runs. He understands his pace and will often burn down the sideline and make a run from deep. He also has an innate sense of when to hold the line and wait for the ball. You can see examples of both points most clearly in his masterful performance against Blackburn:
There in the 31st second (of the video) you can see what I mean by his ability to figure out how a team is playing their line. In the 49th second, he lets the ball run across his body rather than take a touch and the only reason his marker is able to keep up with him is that Chris Foy allows him to pull the shirt nearly off Theo’s back. Then at 1:13 is where you can see an example of Theo making the run from deep so that he can fully explode past his defender. The shot is well placed there (something someone without a brain wouldn’t do) and is taken with power. At 2:42 you see that Theo has dramatically increased his upper and lower body strength as he shrugs off several defenders.
So, I think it’s pretty clear that Chris Waddle is, as we say in America, just a hater. Alan Hansen on the other hand is a glory hunter. It’s important to note that before his latest outbursts on Match of the Day many people were wondering if the program was even relevant in today’s media saturated environment. Hansen, then, needed something controversial to keep his program and himself relevant. So, what he did was actually a 100% reversal of earlier comments he’d made about Theo.
Before the World Cup, he wrote a column in which he said that Walcott had no natural instincts to play football. That if he was given time on the ball he was fine but that he had no clue how to play the ball instinctively.
It is no slight on a player to accuse them of not having a football brain. You either have one or you don’t. It is about natural instinct, the innate ability to see things before they happen. Wayne Rooney has it and Kenny Dalglish had it. When Bob Paisley used to say at Liverpool that, at the highest level, the first two yards were in the head, he was spot-on.
If Theo Walcott had that ability to see the picture opening up, that football brain, he would be a world-beater, but he has a long way to go and we still don’t know how he will ultimately turn out.
I had to go back and look it up because when I watched the video of Hansen on Match of the Day I swore that he said just the opposite: that his instincts were just fine, but that Theo struggled when given too much time.
What you’re always going to judge him on is not what he does well and what he does instinctively, it’s when he’s got time to think about it. That’s the big criticism, when he’s got time to think about what’s happening I think he struggles a bit.
It’s almost as if… and I don’t want to be accused of cynicism here… but it’s almost as if Alan Hansen’s criticisms don’t have any basis in fact. Rather that Hansen is taking something that a player does in one game and using that to paint the entire player with a broad brush. Almost as if he doesn’t really have a single point to make about Theo, but rather that he’s contradicting himself because his only real point is to just criticize Theo Walcott.
Now why would he do that? Because maybe, just maybe, he, like Chris Waddle, needed a convenient target to pick on that would be sure to get them a lot of press.
Mission accomplished.
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Can’t believe you wasted your time on this. Why does Alan Hansen need press? He’s on MOTD every week and writes dozens of newspaper columns.
I think before the Blackpool game most people agreed with Hansen, because last season Walcott was fucking abysmal. Then he puts 3 past Blackpool and everyone says he’s god! Bollocks. It was fucking Blackpool.
Yes Walcott did well at Blackburn, and I think he can go quite far. Most footballers don’t have a football brain like Rooney or Ronaldo or Zidane etc. might have, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be dangerous and effective players with long careers.
As for Hansen, he’s entitled to his opinion and I’m sure he’ll give Walcott credit and admit he’s wrong when the time comes.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:46 am
James you remind me of that scene in the film Mystery Men where the characters argue over the real identity of captain amazing and do a spoof on the whole put on a pair of glasses and not be recognised as a superhero thing.
September 3rd, 2010 at 10:48 am
@James, lol
Alan, is that you?
September 3rd, 2010 at 11:17 am
Oh dear, james is a sad bitter attention seeking tit too it seems.
September 3rd, 2010 at 3:00 pm
@John Cross,
Hi John, are you here looking for column ideas?
September 3rd, 2010 at 4:04 pm
@John Cross, I was going to tell you to write a piece about how Redknapp saved England from Wenger but it looks like your pal Lawro beat you too it.
“Why Harry Redknapp has to be the next England boss”
Read more: http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/mark-lawrenson/Mark-Lawrenson-Column-Why-Tottenham-manager-Harry-Redknapp-has-to-be-the-next-England-boss-when-Fabio-Capello-goes-article571243.html
September 3rd, 2010 at 5:39 pm
@Tim, Before appointing ‘Arry as the next anointed one, let’s see him get Sp**s out of their group first. Consider it an audition because in Europe, tactics matter.
September 3rd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
@ctpa, with rafael vdv the spuds may actually have a chance. this is what lawrenson said though :
“England do not need so much of a manager as a motivator”
what why is that? cos the english players have such superior technical skills?
September 4th, 2010 at 8:04 am
YOU GUYS SHOULD LISTEN TO YOURSELVES – HANSEN AND WADDLE ARE ABSOLUTELEY RIGHT IN THEIR COMMENTS ABOUT WALCOTT. JUST BECAUSE TW SCORES A HAT-TRICK AGAINST BLACKPOOL, HE IS A WORLD CLASS PLAYER. TW DID NOT DESERVE TO GO TO THE WORLD CUP BECAUSE HE IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH – SIMPLE! HE DOES NOT HAVE A FOOTBALL BRAIN. HIS STRENGH IS HIS SPEED AND HE CANNOT EVEN USE THAT WELL. WHE HE HAS OPEN SPACE TO RUN INTO HE WILL GET THE BETTER OF THE DEFENDER, HOWEVER WHEN HE NEEDS TO BEAT THE DEFENDER WITH THE BALL AT HIS FEET HE FAILS 9 TIMES OUT OF 10. HIS FIRST TOUCH IS POOR AND THE QUALITY OF HIS DELIVERY IS POOR. I AM FED UP OF HEARING HE IS ONLY 21. WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR FROM THEO ARE BASICS – BEATING YOUR DEFENDER, GOOD FIRST TOUCH, PASSING OVER 10 YARDS AND A DECENT CROSS FROM THE FLANKS. DO YOU REALISE EVERY MIDFEILDER AND FORWARD AT ARSENAL CAN DO THIS( INCLUDING 18 YEAR OLD JACK WISLHIRE). I HAVE OFTEN SAID IF THEO WAS NOT ENGLISH, EVERYONE OF YOU WOULD BE CALLING FOR WENGER TO GET RID OF HIM!
September 4th, 2010 at 8:13 am
@bjohnson, I’m trying to listen to myself, but I can’t hear myself over your caps-lock.
Also, you know why Theo didn’t go to the World Cup, right? Because Terry and Lampard convinced Capello to bring Joke Hole instead.
How did that work out for England?
Well said ..
but i would say that you don’t need to defend theo or say anything about such cunts coz they won’t listen or do anything about it coz they are total retards…..
Go Arsenal Go
Wiltshire, after all the flimflam for the England senior squad. Cant even get in the 1st 11 of the under 21s. people are saying he has been dropped because of a bad attitude
What it wrong with Arsenal players, Nasri its been said can cause a fight in a empty room.
come on Wenger, not another wasted English talent on the Skids at Arsenal
September 3rd, 2010 at 11:17 am
@aicher, Don’t believe the hupe about Wiltshire. Capello wants him to learn his trade in the under 21′s, and come 2012 he will be part of the Euro’s. I personally think its the best place for him. Nasri has grown up. He was fearful of Gallas, so he acted like a little child. The danger is gone, and he is now a man.
+1
Aicher Reply:
September 3rd, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Wiltshire going to learn his trade looking from the subs bench at the under 21s is he?
looks like he been dropped
+1
LONDON CALLING Reply:
September 4th, 2010 at 12:20 am
@Aicher, Who will you drop from the Arsenal team and replace Wiltshire, especially when all mid field are fit. Please elaborate. p.s. Wiltshire have played more football in the Premiership this year that Fab, Nasri, RVP and Eboue. Not bad for a player who allegedly Arsene does not appreciate or been “wasted” by Arsenal. We have played three competitive games. End of
Nice piece, Tim. Particularly considering that some folks are still writing about goalkeeping. I’ve admittedly had my doubts/concerns about Theo, but I’ve actually been dying to see Wenger put him up in more of a striker’s role.
Hansen and Twaddle, (Sorry thats what they talk), I mean Waddle, Ignore them and they may go away!!!!!!!!
I think the problem with Theo is that he takes too long to get match fit after an injury…. Cesc and RvP are still decent players when they come back from injury and in some cases they are MOTM even after coming back from injury.
Theo needs a good 6-8 games to get match fit and that’s the reason why he was pretty rubbish last season, I dont think he ever got an extended run of games before getting another injury.
Very good observation. Alan Hansen did rather change his mind last week – when confronted by Alan Shearer, pointing out Theo’s runs and his net busting goal, when he MADE himself some time to think… I had never seen Hansen saying the complete opposite, thanks for pointing that out. Theo has been great this year, good rest has done him good!
I’m quite glad that Capello didn’t pick him for the World Cup…
Tim: Good day. I know it’s your blog and also it’s the Interlull, but really, Hanson and Gretel does not deceive your eloquence. You could have written about Arsenal contribution in terms of Charity and Good Deeds. Theo will be fine. The reason I know this is because I was there when Terry Henry missed many opportunities to score goals, and they lambasted him. It took him 10 games. I remember saying to Mr London Calling, Perez was not very good, (he did not like the tackle) and look who surprised me, but mostly I remember the bigoted views of the English tabloid press when Vieira received two or more Red cards in a season. The negative press and the prejudice.
Anyhow, enough of this, its 30 minutes before the England game, so I need to open the red wine, to celebrate, I hope a win.
As an American, you should know the code — black players are good “natural” or “instinctive” players, but lack the intelligence, knowledge, awareness, and spine of others.
Theo was born in England, so the standard xenophobic or Francophonic prejudice won’t cover the racism, so they have to go to this — he lacks an “English” brain!
September 3rd, 2010 at 1:10 pm
@Baygooner, Remember all that nonsense about how black players couldn’t play quarterback.
Then you had the ‘well known’ sports commentator Rush Limbaugh claiming that the media’s desire for a successful black quarterback led them to ‘overrate’ McNabb.
http://espn.go.com/gen/news/2003/1001/1628537.html
Will Hansen and Twaddle fall their swords because of their racist comments.
No idea who Wansen and Haddle are.
All I can see is Theo 2.0 this season. I mean, FKs ? Open play long distance powerful curlers? Breaking the net? Receiving the ball with the back to the goal, turning and firing?
If you can’t see that his repertoire tripled, I don’t know where or what you’re looking at.
i hope engerland lose,,in all fairness they are really shit
September 3rd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
@irish gooner, I just heard the Irish won 1-0 well done. Oh by the way England won 4-0.
Hansen is a twat. Tim, you should challenge him to a duel – with swords.
September 3rd, 2010 at 3:01 pm
@nycgunner, “swordfight” means something totally different over here. When I heard Ian say that I laughed. Not at the idea of him actually having a sword fight, but at the idea of him and Sandro having a swordfight.
September 3rd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
@Tim, lol.. somehow i imagine sandro wearing a dress to that fight
England Game: Well that was’nt so bad. Everyone played well especially Rooney. I was impressed. France have lost at home.. booo.
After watching the England game tonight you have to say Hansen and Waddle are absolutely right about Walcott.
He is useless
September 3rd, 2010 at 3:39 pm
@Aicher, This submission does not deceive a response, but I will take the bait and respond but first I shall bite my tongue before I write, Aicher, please indulge me when I say you know very little about tactical football. Think about this! I thought everyone played well tonight. Very rarely do you find 11 outfield players all having an excellent game; Theo was not worse or better than Johnson or Barry.
September 3rd, 2010 at 4:25 pm
@Aicher, funny, the Independent gave him a 7, which was what Gerrard, Cole, Hart, and Milner got.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/man-for-man-marking-england-2070210.html
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:00 pm
@Tim, I think 5 would have been generous for Theo. His touches really let him down today but I think he links up a lot better with Sagna than he does with Glen Johnson. I wonder why..
I’m happy someone cleared this up. For ages I didn’t understand what the fuck Hansen was talking about. Because he said this weird statement about how he doesn’t have a football brain to think, but does stuff instinctively.
Surely, if you do that stuff instinctively, it’s even more impressive and useful than being given time to think about it. Any old cunt can make the right action if given time, but if you do something instinctively isn’t that called gifted?
And yeah, then Hansen was talking about how Theo can’t think instinctively. I was thinking that maybe I was stupid and couldn’t understand what the fuck was going on.
To sum up: Hansen is chatting shit and if you try to comprehend it and wade into this ulterior-motived nonsense, you will end up smelling of doo-doo and being a strange, bitter twat yourself.
“It’s important to note that before his latest outbursts on Match of the Day many people were wondering if the program was even relevant in today’s media saturated environment.” Didn’t you just answer your own question? Just for Tim, here is a clip summing up your world http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBSG_-lP4_Y As for Hansen, let him have his point of view. After all, you love telling everybody yours – DAILY!! Chill Tim.
September 3rd, 2010 at 7:29 pm
@Wigmorepumps, strange, I never said he can’t have an opinion yet that keeps coming up as a critique of the piece. In fact, I like that he is opinionated, especially that he seems to have contradictory opinions. It gave me something to write about today.
I don’t understand the folks who are defending Hansen, he shredded a young and talented Arsenal player who is growing leaps and bounds in spite of Hansen and Waddle’s obviously spiteful words. But hey, you too are entitled to your opinions which you post here and everywhere else daily as well. If I didn’t care about peoples opinions and wanted to only hear myself talk I’d kill the comments just like ANR
chris bottling cry baby waddle, 62 caps and 6 goals for england, theo’s half way there in 12.
nuff said
stuart paerce is to a large extend resopnsible for theo’s poor vshowing last year when he forcibly took theo into under 21 gamnes whic added to his senior games. today, as theo gets lambasted by these madd haters, he is conspicuously silent, but he knows he is the guilty man.
Waddle is a hypocrite who himself consistently flopped for England. As an ex Spurs Turd he is bound to attack Walcott. He consistently is negative & grudging in his commentary on Arsenal matches.
Hansen’s judgement is so good he laughably predicted Liverpool to be champions last season. Liverpool were clearly a 2 man team who obviously over achieved to be 2nd the previous season. Hansen is the archetypal ex Liverpool player pundit like Phil Thompson who can never display honesty & criticise anything to do with Liverpool FC.