Theo on the left?

Theo Walcott has been taking a bit of stick recently. To be fair, he's been taking stick for most of his career at Arsenal. Much of this criticism has centred around his remarkably frustrating lack of end product, whether that be his finish, cross or final pass.

Whilst last season it seemed he had turned a corner, finishing with aplomb on regular occasions (a caveat must be added in that his form did appear, coincidentally or not, to drop after he had signed the lucrative contract he had been yearning for), he unfortunately seems to have slipped back into 'mediocrity' at the start of this season.

Sunderland was particularly galling, having been put through on several occasions by the simply splendid Mesut Ozil (I'm not going to bother with those pesky umlauts), he failed to convert any of the gilt edged chances awarded to him. Olivier Giroud even remarked after the game that Theo should have done better.

He finally scored his first goal of the season against Marseille with a brilliant strike, and at a crucial time, it must be added. So hurrah to that, and maybe that's all he needed and he'll start banging them in again. But maybe not.

I have a theory regarding Theo, one that I don't think I've ever seen anyone else mention. Why doesn't he ever play on the left?

If you look at the hat-trick he scored in the manic 7-3 home win over Newcastle last season (a game in which he started as the lone striker, with Giroud on the bench), two of his goals came from the left, the other from a scramble in the box.

His first, a genuinely Henry-esque finish into the bottom corner, showed how much more comfortable he is finishing from that angle than the one he is so often presented with when coming in from the right. The same could probably be said for most right footed players, they would be happier finishing when coming in from the left hand side.

The obvious counter argument to having Theo on the left would be the resulting lack of width in the side, but as the average positions from this season show, he doesn't play as a conventional winger anyway, it often appears as if we are playing an ultra narrow 4-4-2. With Cazorla being as two footed as it is possible to be, he would have no problem moving from the left to the right.

Walcott wouldn't have to dramatically alter his game, he would just have to make the same runs he does from the right, but on the left. With Wilshere currently occupying the wide berth vacated by Cazorla, he might also benefit from the shift, as he can cut onto his favoured left foot more easily. The presence of Ozil also reduces the problem of a lack of width, as we saw against Marseille, Ozil often drifts out to the wings from his central position, which would compensate for the lack of touchline hugging from Walcott and Wilshere/Cazorla.

It wouldn't require a drastic shift in terms of the way the side set up, the roles of the wide men would just effectively reverse. Whilst a change to this tactic seems unlikely, it does seem odd that it isn't ever employed on an ad-hoc basis during games, for say, a 15 minute period.

If I was a slowish right back, the sight of Theo Walcott wandering over looking to run in behind me (having previously had to contend with the altogether different, and certainly less explosive options of Cazorla/Wilshere/Podolski) would scare me shitless.

Sure, he wouldn't put as many crosses in, but does he ever really find anyone with them anyway? It might leave our full-backs even more exposed than they already are, it might leave all our forward players competing for the same space around the edge of the box, causing a comical group pile-up around the D as they fight to the death to escape the suffocating vacuum they have been placed into.

Or, perhaps in a home game, perhaps against a team like Stoke, a sudden change in the approach of our attack could result in a startling upturn in both Theo's and Arsenal's effectiveness in front of goal.

Just a thought.

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