It was nice to see Theo Walcott silence a few of his critics last weekend by scoring two against Tottenham.
Hopefully that will be a crucial moment for him because I’d love to see him become a really influential player for club and country.
Theo Walcott scores his first goal against Tottenham
He’s a very likeable young man but he probably should have developed a bit more than he has.
He has been struggling to find a rhythm to his game. When that happens, everything is difficult — you’re fighting your first touch, fighting the ball, fighting everyone on the terraces.
So now he has to find the consistency that makes him someone you can really rely on. He was close to becoming that at the beginning of last season but then lost his way after picking up an injury on England duty.
The biggest motivator for Walcott is that England have a lot of potentially very good young wide men: Aaron Lennon, Adam Johnson, Ashley Young, Daniel Sturridge and Walcott’s Arsenal team-mate Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
One of them has to elevate himself into a more reliable and trustworthy option for their country.
My tip to do that would be Sturridge because he has the most end product to his game. He is more selfish and arrogant in the way he plays than Theo — in a good way — which means he doesn’t drift in and out of games as much.
Sturridge and Walcott are stuck out on the wing, playing out of their favourite central positions, but the Chelsea man is more threatening and is always looking to get a shot away.
Walcott is trying to be more of a team player while Sturridge is more often than not looking after No 1. He just wants goals and maybe Walcott needs to do more of that.
Cool down Cap'n ScottScott Parker (right) has been brilliant for Tottenham this season — he is the reason they are doing so well, in my opinion.
He deserves to be England captain. His style is all-action but he must rein that in a bit at international level.
You have to be disciplined and just sit in at times to protect the back four, snapping at people’s heels, a bit like Nigel de Jong does for Holland. Otherwise the team will be punished.
One man who can learn from Parker is Joey Barton. Parker was inspirational for West Ham last season as they tried to escape relegation and Barton now has to step up and perform that role for QPR. He is capable of much more than he is doing at the moment.
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