Is this a wind-up? Walcott is the perfect player to complete our attack?
From what I've seen of him Arsenal moved him up front as he didn't have the intelligence or craft to create from wide on the right.
Even up front his best work comes late on in games when Arsenal are winning and the opposition are stretched, that's when he can use his ridiculous pace and good finishing. There's a big difference between pace and the ability to dribble.
Well things have changed quite drastically since then, haven't they? We have no idea what Van Gaal has planned for the team. I posted that around the time that Mata and Kagawa were striking up a good partnership, Moyes had seemingly identified that, and had he stayed at the club, it was looking likely that Rooney would be the focal point of the attack, and that Van Persie would have probably moved on.
If you were go to with the Rooney, Mata and Kagawa combination, with Kagawa drifting towards the centre, you need a right sided forward to ensure you've got some width, forward movement and most importantly, pace and goals.
Ideally, you would boast a player like Bale, or even Ronaldo, but that isn't realistic. Walcott is one of those players that rival supporters love to hate. He's been much-maligned since the age of 16 through no fault of his own, yet now possesses productivity that is irrefutable. He scores goals, he creates, and is a good outlet for creative players. Is he perfect? Of course not. But he is a good player, and he'd certainly do well in a team that had a player like Mata pulling the strings from the centre.
The best football teams need balance. Players like Walcott can give that. Now, I'm not suggesting buying him, not least because I predict that Van Gaal's wide players will need that bit more individual ability to create given the way he likes his wide men to play. But if you're setting up a team the way it looked like Moyes was attempting to do, Walcott wouldn't be a bad option at all.