My main issue with giroud is his speed, never seen a striker be not even close to so many tap ins because he is running at 2mph to the back post
The last 25 years, Arsenal fans have watched Alan Smith, Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp, Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, Emmanual Adebayor, and Robin van Persie all be the featured striker for this club and perform incredibly. Olivier Giroud would rank at the very bottom of that list. Thats why we give him "harsh" criticism, we know what a great striker looks like and are used to that.
It seems to me that there is a question of the way a team play and team ambition. Against lesser competition, where Arsenal control the pace and dictate play, Giroud will be well-supported from the midfield moving forward and will not be isolated-and this is a good role for him. As opposing teams get better, and a lone striker is called on more and more to not only score but to create, Giroud is simply not good enough in this role at the level that Arsenal (at least the fans) want to be. He's never going to be a consistent goal scorer against top competition when he is unsupported. To play that role is a big ask and few are capable of it. Look at the list that Prince put up- there are a lot of extraordinary individual talents in there. IMO it is clear that Giroud is not at that level. I keep seeing the mention of the number of goals he has scored- but one must look at more than just the number of goals scored and also look at who they have been scored against. IMO, a goal scored against a lower in the table team shouldn't be counted that same way a goal against an elite opponent is. Looking at this year's numbers, I am sure Giroud would like to play Southampton (3 goals, 8th position) and Sunderland (3 goals, 17th position) every week, but his lack of production against top 5 competitors (1 goal total) is telling. Giroud is just not a top producer of goals against top competitors given the single front-runner scheme that we are now playing. Is it all Giroud's fault? I wouldn't say that. It seems to me that we are tactically pretty rigid and need to adjust more to our opponents. Maybe a 4-5-1 isn't the right alignment every week. But that's a discussion for another thread.
But even that understates things a little bit. Loic Remy isn't Thierry Henry but for our purposes I don't think Giroud is at Remy's level. The things that he's good at, linkup play, a mediocre scoring record as opposed to a horrible one, availability, are just not that important for us. And hopefully they'll be even less important with an infusion of quality options this window. I agree. Specifically, for us a scoring record in the League is much more relevant than scoring record across all competitions. For domestic cup games, even the CL in the qualifying and group stages, the goals are usually easier to come by and the misses less costly in the competitive context. But any time you drop points in the League, they're not coming back. Giroud is just too big a risk.
He's the symbol for this team. Good enough against the mid-lower table clubs. Outclassed by the contenders. Has he ever scored a good goal against a top team? Not that I can remember. He is great at punishing bad teams, but just doesn't have the RVP/Henry magic to do it against the elite.
No shots at you but it reminds me of that old Wenger stuff about "every fan wants us to sign Messi" which is disingenuous as hell. I mean there's a WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD btw Messi and every striker we've had since Henry departed (excepting RvP). As with your comparison there's no damn way that you can tell me that a club of Arsenal's financial stature and historical pedigree should be charging people 100 pound a game for a guy like Giroud to show up. He's done fine but where are the big goals in big games? It's not only about how many you score but when and against whom you score them, wouldn't you agree?
If his foot speed was better he would get more shots, if he was faster he would get more one on ones. But despite all that, if he would just put some ********ing power into his shots when he is in close I would be happy. That miss against Chelsea was simultaneously criminal and moral crushing.
Adebayor in current incarnation is a level above Giroud no more damning an assertion can be made than that smh we gotta do better next season
If wenger keeps giroud then we need speed from elsewhere otherwise we arent doing shit next year Could this team operate with griezman and draxler in it? Doubt we xould afford it but put drax uptop and griez left?
We need a winger-forward, should Giroud stay, a winger who scores a lot goals. Çalhanoglu is 20 years old scored his 11th goal against Bayern yesterday, wouldn't mind him and Griezmann around to be honest.
I get it and that's fine. With RvP and some of the ones before him, we struggled to put away small teams. This season we are the second most successful team after Liverpool in scoring aerial goals. I also think Giroud will score more goals with Ramsey and Ozil playing behind him. We can use an upgrade but with our resources at the time, he was not a bad buy.
We should have. But given the way it played out, I don't blame Wenger or team management for not getting that deal. Strictly as a one-off, we could have afforded what Napoli ended up paying but we would get raped on every other transfer deal from now till the end up of time if we'd given in to Real. Up till Napoli was willing to pay 38M GBP or whatever, there was no reason to believe that market value for Higuain was any more than 24M GBP or whatever we handshook with Real on. The problem is, when you are perceived to be a cheap club as we are, you might be able to get deals done at that level but you'll always be vulnerable to time frame issues, eg consider a scenario regarding Higuain. Let's say we pulled out of the Higuain transfer before Napoli came in. The next lowest bidder might have been 2-5M GBP less than us. By holding out, Real was able to get 3-5x more than they were risking by jerking us around. We should have gotten PEA when he was available. In general, the cheaper transfers have a better-defined market so they can be closed quicker.
Even that overstates things a little bit. I think the best we can hope from Giroud is what we got today. Did he really "punish" WBA? Well, sort of. He had a well-taken header off a corner but when I think of punishing bad teams I tend to think of Suarez against Norwich or the like and I don't think that's on the cards with Giroud. In fact, I don't think he's scored a hat trick since he's been at Arsenal. Here's a better question IMO. Does having Giroud on the teamsheet or in the squad make it more likely or less likely that the team scores 3-6 goals in a typical EPL match? As things stand it's more likely for sure. But if we are able to get the reinforcements we're hoping for this summer, I suspect it might be less likely instead.
Thank you for being so level headed. It's refreshing. I hate it when everyone points out that Giroud sucks against tougher opposition. This is true, but the statement doesn't encompass the entire situation. As a target-forwardesque striker, Giroud only has to deal with the center backs and the goalkeeper. Better teams have better players in those positions of course, but is that the only thing effecting Giroud's performances in those games? It might be, but I'd like to see the number of chances and shots Giroud has in those games compared to the ones against Sunderland, Norwich etc. I think the stats will show that the rest of the team deserves some of the blame for not giving him the proper service. And you're right, we might need to approach those games in a entirely different manner.
He has scored 21 goals but how many of those were in the big games or against top opposition? Thats the problem. He's a 10 million pound lamppost against those teams and Arsenal won't win the league with him as the starter. For top 4th finish every season, he's serviceable but top of the league or a CL trophy? Not in your dreams.
Giroud needs good service to score. He's not a player to create his own chances. Against better teams, he's not getting adequate service.
Just like in basketball, a truly elite player must be able create his own shot instead of just hitting shots when he's open.
This is what C.Ronaldo's underrated skill is. He takes a lot of shots because he creates openings for himself at the edge of the box 4-6 times a game.