Arsenal fans have been known to jump on a players back in a bad spell of form and it’s largely because we expect so much more from players and a team that should be achieving more than it does in reality. One of those players who has largely fallen short of expectation in the eyes of many Gunners, is Arsenal’s striker Olivier Giroud.
Giroud to be fair is not quite as bad as some make him out to be. Sure he can be frustrating with his fancy flicks in front of goal and his inconsistency levels are out of this world. However on his day he has proven that he can lead the line for Arsenal. The Frenchman does score on average 20 plus goals a season and he has spent large parts of the past two seasons with injures. With this in mind, Giroud is valuable to Arsenal and 20 plus goals in all competitions isn’t the worst. But of course we do expect more from a player who is supposed to be winning us the title with his goals.
I’ve always maintained that Giroud does have a place in this Arsenal squad, his strengths are valuable to the team, he just doesn’t have the quality or consistency to be the club’s main striker. Giroud should be a bench/ rotational player at Arsenal, a plan B, not a plan A and Wenger can change that this summer. Giroud should definitely not be binned however and it seems that Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry agrees about his compatriot.
Thierry Henry said this week: “I’ve said it many times – Giroud is very good at what he does. He’s a very good player but he needs to play with someone.
Giroud, with his back to goal, is very good; you saw the goal against Ireland when Giroud flicked on and [Antoine] Griezmann scored. He can’t turn and outpace anyone, Giroud, but in Griezmann he has a guy he can feed. It’s a great partnership. They share the workload of scoring goals. I never doubted what he can do but I think he’s better with someone alongside him.
Everyone has always said that Arsenal need another striker but that doesn’t mean Giroud has to drop to the bench. He should play with someone because he has all the attributes. I’ve said before, I would have loved to have played with him.”
Titi may not agree about Giroud dropping to the bench as he seems to think that all Giroud needs is a partner up front, but I can’t see Wenger switching to a 442 kind of formation. This is because with the amount of midfielders we have, as well as Ozil not being so effective on the wing. What Henry does agree on though is that to get the most out of Giroud at Arsenal, we need to play to his strengths. That means not trying to play the ball to his feet far away from goal, as he can’t beat a defender with pace, but instead feeding him on the edge of the box. Also playing balls into the box for him to header would play to his strengths, as Giroud is one of the strongest headers of the ball in the Premier League.
Giroud can be utilised at Arsenal to an effective standard, we just have to play to his strengths and not expect him be consistent throughout the whole season if he is going to be our main striker. It is so important Wenger looks elsewhere for another striker to lead the line for Arsenal next season, someone who has different striking qualities to Giroud. Luckily for Arsene Wenger, we seem to have been linked to a fair few of these players this summer.
By AH
And that makes everything wrong…………
Giroud shouldn’t be our number 1 striker (neither Theo either) but i am more than happy with him being back up
Giroud lacks speed and we need a more clinical finisher
Too many missed opportunities for a number 1 but Giroud’s record speaks for itself
He would be an excellent Supersub
I can understand playing Giroud with say Lacazette. Lacazette and janssen are weak in the air. Giroud is excellent in the air. but i doubt Wenger will go to 442
there is nothing with giroud .
He scores against bayern mancity manure liverpool germany spain.
He gives us 15/16 goals a season without scoring penalties or even completing 90 minutes in every game.
But what we need is a player like ramsey to become muller or rooney to assist to giroud’s scoring duties
Ignore the fact he always goes 10-15 games without a single goal
We can keep pointing the blame to specific
players for our failures but the truth is that it is the tiki taka style which is letting us down.
It keeps on leaving our defence open and our attack impotent.
As the writer says we need to play players to their strengths as giroud himself lead monteplier to the title ahead of the likes of psg.
We need to employ different tactics in our game to solve this problem.
And a plan b is also required
There’s this wise saying that goes:
in the land of the blind, a one eyed man is king.
Giroud is not the best we can get at Arsenal…however, until he’s replaced with a better option, he’s the one eyed man.
What we need is a 20+ goals in the 38 game league striker then in all competitions he must have 30+ goals and Giroud is not that he barely makes it to 20+ goals in all competitions including the League,FA Cup and Champions League
24 goals and 6 assists the same number as Vardy. OG however was subbed or came on as a sub many games.
Vardy had 24 goals in 36 league games while Giroud had 24 goals in over 50 games in all competitions including the league,Fa cup and champions league so your comparison is balls because Giroud’s record is rubbish!
Vardy started 36 games. Giroud 37 games in all comps. Not too far off.
Hahahahaha.Oh! Arsenal I really feel sorry for us.It’s gonna take a while for us to win something with this mentality.The more I talk of Giroud the more angrier I get.But seriously after four years are we still talking of this guy.As I said it’s part of life.Some make the cut some just don’t make the cut.But hey you will always have people who refuse to open their eyes to the truth.Arsenal needs a savior somebody who can step up and put it in there.Maybe the savior is hiding in our club bu he’s not been unleashed yet or maybe he’s out there so we have to get him.Until then all I see in my eyes is average written over this guy.Maybe you see something special in his play but I don’t.
Do ya know who I think would get us more goals than Giroud, many won’t agree, but Calum Wilson off Bournemouth looks a tidy little finisher to me. He’s quick and strong too. I imagine our own Willock becoming a similar type player one day.
I will suggest we all give the guy a break and Wenger should just put out of his misery by selling him.Giroud is not the kind of player you sell and you miss.Arsenal will be the biggest team he’s ever gonna play for.I thank him for his services and for giving his all in arsenal shirt.He should just do what I want and leave.A world class striker aint gonna improve hos case at all.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with Giroud. Hence why he is going to play every game next season. Because we don’t have any ambition to buy a world class striker.
No pace, no movements, no runs behind the defense, no dribbling, no pressing, no consistency scoring goals….please for truck sake stop dressing a donkey as a throughbred!!!!!
Never won anything with that donkey starting a game…collecting 75k/week for what? Belongs at Stoke or WBA but not at title or CL chasing team….unfortunately deluded Wenger will keep on choosing as our No.1.
Giroud is not my ideal picture of an arsenal forward, his lack of pace is the main draw back, his goal scoring total is not anything to write home about or his occasional misses. However, the personnel around Giroud have not contribute sufficient goals to help our cause of winning the title, i would love admin to do an article on the the three players closest to Giroud and their goals contribution per minute.
While we expect the forward to get most goals in a season, the burden of goals can not be left to Giroud alone, Sanchez, walcott, Ozil, ox,Campbell and to a lesser extent ( iwobi, welbeck and ramsay) must all be held accountable.
and please do not go about saying Ozil has 18 assist and he is only there to create chances, in the position he plays he should be contributing at least 15 – 18 goals, i had sanchez getting us at least 20 goals last season but i do not hear anybody on sanchez case, i would not even speak about Walcott and the others.
I sure if those contribution was done we would ave been champions.
So stop blaming Giroud alone, because even if we get the 20 + goals striker we all want that does not guarantee we will win the league if the other players around are not contributing
@ruelando Good call that. OG plays with back to goal for many minutes during the game. If you noticed how Griezeman takes advantage of his target play then it should be that both forwards and midfield should be supplying goals as well. I would say the forwards should be providing as many as OG, which as stated before is 24 goals for last season.
We do do that, but the opposition is too easily reading it. France usually go with Benz, or both of them. So other countries have only now played this tactic of France’s. Man mark Greizmann and Payet and this tactic comes to a halt (or put one man in front of Giroud), or congest the area around Giroud like it is in prem and this becomes very difficult to pull off. Ozil tries it allot with Giroud, but he has no space to run into. Wilshere scored a great one last season doing this, but they were far and few between.
Granted it is tough with 20 behind the ball but if Ozil can learn to lob over the line then he and OG would connect more. That pass is not a common one with Ozil. He has tremendous vision I really hope he can squire that skill.
France probably going to win Euro’s with Giroud as striker. If he’s good enough for France, one of the best teams in the world currently he’s good enough for Arsenal-
But we still need another striker
Exactly
We need a Top striker (someone capable of over 20 PL goals a season)
But Giroud is good enough to be a quality back up
I disagree with the writer. The trouble with Giroud is that he never scores against the big teams, and that with the chances Ozil creates he should be scoring more (as should Theo and Sanchez). Limpar, Lungberg and of course TH had pace and skill – which is why we were so good back then. Surely not another season of watching Giroud huff and puff -zzzzzz. Incidentally, I like him in many respects, but we will not win the league with him. Goalie, central midfield and centre forward!!! Football has always been like that.
Id like to have known exactly which clubs came inquiring about Giroud. Would be interested to know, is it a club looking for an upgrade. Is it one looking for a partner, or a bit of height and strength for a plan b. Or do they have a couple there already who Giroud would sit behind. Personally, I believe it was a number of mid table clubs, and maybe even some new comers.
So Wenger didn’t even take up the opportunity to speak about the player every tabloid is saying we bid for. Are we surprised, no. Does this mean he’s not interested, I’m not sure, clubs like to know about a players character. Anyway, anyone see Asano double yesterday, two nice finishes, but one of them was a peach, far corner beauty.
GIROU IS SLOW AND FRUSTRATING
5-6 CHANCES FOR 1 GOAL
CAN’T RUN …
I GUESS WHOEVER WROTE THIS ARTICLE WILL BE AN HAPPY MAN THIS COMING SEASON BECAUSE WENGER WON’T REPLACE HIM ANYWAY…