The Walcott and Lennon Debate

For years now England,Tottenham and Arsenal supporters have have been arguing the merits of either player on the right wing for England, of late James Milner and Adam Johnson have been prominent in that position as both Lennon and Walcott have had injury and /or performance issues at their respective clubs



Of course the comparisons should end as apart from their pace they really are a different type of player, Lennon an orthodox winger, made for speed and trickery, getting at the fullback and reaching the byline to deliver balls into the box. Theo Walcott is nothing like Aaron Lennon, apart from possessing the same blinding pace, he does not have a wingers mindset, although not a selfish player I can actually see the point of Walcott seeing himself as a forward and goalscorer, he constantly gets himself into one on ones with the keeper, when, if ever, have we seen Aaron Lennon in a one on one? I certainly can’t remember an occasion, but with his pace he should be getting behind defences and heading for goal much more often.

In the system favoured by Villas-Boas of a 4 3 3 or as we are currently playing a 4 2 3 1 the onus is on all of the offensive three in both of these formations to score a reasonable amount of goals, Gareth Bale we know will do so, he is already off the mark and his strike rate on goal is immense, Dempsey and Sigurdsson just from past experience will get the job done and Defoe and Adebayor are nailed on, the weak link in the goalscoring chart will almost certainly be Lennon unless he can adapt his game a little. We know his importance to the team and all the other attributes he brings but the supposed Tottenham link to Willian and more recently Dries Mertens, if true, suggest a tricky speedster with an eye for goal is going to challenge strongly for a starting position in the team if Tottenham can get their man, whoever that may really be .

The two players do not compare in styles in reality but I believe that Aaron Lennon would benefit from adapting a little and adopting a more direct route on occasions.