That's a question for Wenger. It must be a part of his development, but Wenger keeps on saying his future is as a striker. But, in fairness to Walcott, he's produced more down that side than players like Rosicky, Hleb, Nasri, Eboue, Bendy and the x amount of players Wenger has asked to play down that side from time to time. None of them are wingers but whenever I've seen any of them play down that side, they've been pretty ineffective. For all of Walcott's faults, he makes something happen down that side and technically, the players I mentioned are a lot better than him when it comes to passing, crossing and dribbling but they've never been anywhere near as effective down that side as Walcott. He's done well considering.
But he should be played down the centre. His off the ball movement and pace really scares defenders and on the edge of the box, players can't just clatter and bash him around. It's too dangerous to give away those sort of fouls. We saw it over the weekend and we should be using that to our advantage. The amount of needless kicks he gets on the wing is only doing him damage and I can't understand why Wenger keeps playing him there. It contributes to the injuries. He doesn't have the ability to go past players on the flanks, but around the box, that sort of acceleration and movement will scare defenders. Wenger keeps praising his intelligence off the ball and his runs so he should be making use of that. He has the potential but he's not a winger and shouldn't be compared to any others either. He's a nippy striker like Defoe, Owen, Hernandez.
It's not just Theo with this problem. Look what happened to Vela. Why does he have a player like Vela that is technically gifted and able to finish and move playing on the left side of the midfield when he's so one footed and restricted to always going to the byline or cutting in on his weaker foot? The kid gets knocked about on the wing and it's probably why he doesn't get involved with play that much. He stays out of it. Theo, give him credit, doesn't hide on the wing even though he gets clattered week in week out and it's probably why he's held his spot.
Chamberlain should be playing on the wing, but again, Wenger sees him as a playmaker and we'll see how he does when he plays, but he's a much better dribbler than Walcott and can take players on. He should be playing down the right, with Walcott up front and RVP behind him. Ramsey should be dropped. He's just not ready to play in the middle.
That's what I mean by playmaker, but he looks like he can play down the wings, similar to Jack when he first arrived on the scene. But we can't keep him there. If he can pass and shoot, he should be playing in the centre.