Buzzin Football

theo walcott

Maybe as a a consequence of missing out in the South Africa World Cup finals, Theo Walcott has started this Premier League season in sparkling form, easily the most dangerous of England’s wide men he has already bagged four goals in 187 minutes of football action.

He will surely have earned himself a starting place up in Fabio Capello’s team who take on Bulgaria this Friday in the first of the qualifiers for Euro 2012.

Castrol Performance analysis confirms that Walcott has compared very favourably to England’s alternative wide men, scoring more goals, mustering more shots, being more accurate with his crosses than all apart from Ashley Young and only behind James Milner in terms of successful dribbles.

Also Walcott will feel he has a point to prove and where better to do that than at Wembley in an England shirt.

With the statistics showing that Bulgaria were at their most vulnerable during the first 15 minutes of their World Cup 2010 qualifiers, Walcott may never have such an opportunity to prove his ability at international level.

Walcott shows lightening pace at the start of any game and the Bulgarians will have their hands full contending with the nippy Arsenal player as he runs at their defence at speed, hopefully creating chances of an early goal or two for himself or his colleagues.

While the Castrol stats show that England were more potent later on in their World Cup qualifying games, Bulgaria will be mindful that four of England’s goals in the campaign were scored inside the first 15 minutes and three of those were scored at Wembley.

Bulgaria will have to be at their most focused if they are to get anything out of this game and England are massive favourites to get themselves off to a winning start on Friday.

castrol performance research

Castrol say England are 76% most likely to win, 15% for a draw and Bulgaria have a 9% of upsetting the odds and winning the match.