Olivier Giroud

[zanela]

complete tosh Theconomist. Can finish his chances? TBF that's 6 years ago, 100 goals in 6 years s 16 on average pahahah.

And if you were take away his goals scored in the lower division, the average would be even worse.

 

[pEllee]

Useless.

 

[Haruko The Goon]

Useless player. He's done that over 10 times this season alone.

Ozil and Cazorla both shouted at him too often this season LOOL Can't wait until we have a striker who actually knows how to finish.

Apparently we're signing this guy. Josip Drmic.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Useless.

Because RVP finishes all his chances like that and Giroud finishes all his chances like that and all there is to being a striker is finishing to chances like that. Cool.

 

[pEllee]

Because RVP finishes all his chances like that and Giroud finishes all his chances like that and all there is to being a striker is finishing to chances like that. Cool.

Nope. Not what even what I said anyway.... but ye, let's not act like it's the first time he misses a sitter by completely fucking up his technique. But whatever, you're a bit deluded. We all know that.

Worst Arsenal starting striker during the entire premier league era. He should be thankful that he has somehow managed to earn good wages whilst starting for a top club. He's mostly just sulking nowadays anyway so they might as well just ship him off in the summer.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Nope. Not what even what I said anyway....

You had a gif of RVP finishing a chance, then Giroud not finishing a similar chance, and then called him useless. Not sure what else you could have said there.

let's not act like it's the first time he misses a sitter by completely fucking up his technique.

Let's not act like he's the only striker in the world to do that... For example, in the Liverpool-United game Suarez and Sturridge had tons of moments when they stumbled and tripped over the ball, but since they won and Suarez got a (ridiculously lucky) goal, everyone forgot about it. Sure the Liverpool duo are in general a lot more efficient and have scored more goals than Giroud, but they're also playing on a team that's in great form and that has barely had to deal with injuries to their attacking players and they're playing in a duo as opposed to a lone striker.

The reason Giroud has not been that good recently is because he thrives on players running in behind him, exchanging 1-2s, putting in dangerous crosses, he's not someone who's going to chase down a through ball and smash it in the back of the net like RVP. So with Walcott, Ramsey, and Wilshere all injured, and the remaining midfielders being Arteta and Flamini (who don't run in behind), Ozil (who prefers to be the one picking out the runners rather than actually running), Ox (who is one of those runners but has yet to reach any level of consistency, when he did play well one of his goals was assisted by Giroud), Rosicky (who is a great player but not a goalscorer), Cazorla (who prefers to shoot from outside of the box or pass it), and Podolski (who is found dropping back to defense more often than he is making a run), obviously Giroud's form will stagnate. Is he perhaps limited and relies on other players instead of doing everything by himself? Sure. Does that make him a bad player? Absolutely not.

 

[pEllee]

text

Which ultimately leaves us with the problem that he's not very suited to the team is he. It's a creative team, they want to play with a finisher that can make the runs for them. Not a striker that need people to make runs for him and can only contribute with link-up play when he's given plenty of time on the ball. Let's not act like the idea of him as an extension of the midfield has been successful against top teams. It hasn't. His ball retention is not on the same level as the rest of the team and the team is all about ball retention in the final third. He's out of his depth against good sides. He can't do shit on his own, he doesn't make any good runs anymore and he's still the player that has missed the most clear cut chances in the league. Even if they create chances for him he usually let's his team down.

You think Wenger is happy with him not contributing anything against the top 4 sides? He's never scored against them and I actually think he's usually the worst player on the pitch in those matches.
Not good enough. He never was and he never will be. He won't be starting next year.

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Which ultimately leaves us with the problem that he's not very suited to the team is he. It's a creative team, they want to play with a finisher that can make the runs for them.

Ramsey, Walcott, and Wilshere all run into the box constantly, and they're all currently injured. Sure, we have more players who look for runners than players that are the runners, but I would start both Ramsey and Theo in an ideal lineup, so I'd say their absence is a pretty big factor, not just to Giroud's poor form but also to Ozil and Cazorla's meh form.

can only contribute with link-up play when he's given plenty of time on the ball.

One of, if not his best attribute is being a post for midfielders, specifically his outside of the foot flick-ons, so I'll disagree with you there. I admit that overall he's not a good passer though.

Let's not act like the idea of him as an extension of the midfield has been successful against top teams. It hasn't.

There has very rarely been a game where he was poor while everyone else was good, in general he suffers when the team suffers. The City, Liverpool, and Chelsea blowouts don't even deserve a mention. He didn't really get any opportunities in the recent game against Spurs (no one really did), he was decent from what I saw against Bayern, he didn't have time to do anything in our win against Liverpool, he scored 2 off the bench against Everton, he was poor against United but no one really stood out, he played an average game in the 0-0 draw to Chelsea but so did everyone else, he had an assist against Dortmund, he played well in the 2-0 win against Liverpool, he couldn't do much in the cup game against Chelsea, he was poor in the loss against United but again so was everyone else, he scored in the loss to Dortmund, he and the entire team were poor in the 2-0 loss to Napoli, he scored the only goal in the 1-0 win against Spurs back at the start of the season, and he scored in the win against Napoli.

I'll be the first to admit that he isn't a player who will pick the team and carry them, and needs everyone else to play well for him to do well, but he should not be blamed with no harsh words toward anyone else.

 

[pEllee]

^

The problem with you Semi is that you seem to have some sort of policy that you must never criticize a player if someone else underperforms. Which makes discussion like these pointless. The idea of him as an extension of the midfield usually means that he'll be very inefficient when he doesn't have good movement around him, true. That's not a good thing at all. Ideally you want a striker to be able to bail you out and offer movement to relieve the team of some pressure...
The kind of football he thrives on is practically impossible to play against top sides. You won't outpass well, say, Chelsea without any dynamic players and you can't rely on your midfielders to always bail you out. These one-twos to get into scoring positions don't really work against defensively strong. They press aggressively and deny the team the time and the chances to pull them off. A striker that can offer penetrating runs is needed. It's a step closer towards greatness. Closer to the vintage Arsenal.


For the record, he didn't play well against Liverpool. He did well against Spurs in September and did okay for 45 minutes against Dortmund. Not enough. He'll be replaced next season, you can count on that. You

 

[Semi-Neutral]

The problem with you Semi is that you seem to have some sort of policy that you must never criticize a player if someone else underperforms.

I haven't really criticized him (although I have conceded his weaknesses) because I don't really see a point to it. I don't in general criticize players, simply because going to their thread and saying "wow this guy sucks" doesn't do anything for me. Regardless, him playing badly is a direct result of other players underperforming, I don't see how it's any different from the argument you always use, "Ozil would be good if he had players making runs for him," in fact it looks pretty similar.

Ideally you want a striker to be able to bail you out and offer movement to relieve the team of some pressure...

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean just pressuring, or making runs behind, or what?

You won't outpass well, say, Chelsea without any dynamic players and you can't rely on your midfielders to always bail you out.

We have dynamic players, our striker just isn't one of them. I don't see why that's a problem.

A striker that can offer penetrating runs is needed. It's a step closer towards greatness.

Again, no idea why it has to be a striker.

 

[pEllee]

Ozil would be good if he had players making runs for him," in fact it looks pretty similar.

The difference of course being that Özil is world class and Giroud is average. Not worth adapting your entire game because of one average lump. And Özil can still do more than Giroud, even when the circumstances aren't ideal for him. He's not constantly losing the ball and missing sitters like Giroud does. Özil's ball retention is still class.

What exactly do you mean by this? Do you mean just pressuring, or making runs behind, or what?

Making runs in behind, of course.

We have dynamic players, our striker just isn't one of them. I don't see why that's a problem.

Well, barely. Only two players offer good off the ball movement. Both are injured and one of them is a box to box midfielder. Having a striker that could offer it would complement all the creative players on the team. Of which there are many.
For starters, Wenger prefers one creative midfielder on the wing, moving centrally and interchanging with the number 10 player. Which ultimately means that there's just one single player offering penetrating runs and that's Walcott. Just one single player... it's a bit easy to defend against that. Now, when he's injured it's gotten even worse.

Ramsey makes late runs into the box but that's not the same thing and again, he's just a box to box midfielder so you can't rely on him to always come up with something brilliant in the final third. He does have an exceptional eye for a through-ball. Imagine if he had yet another player to pick out. It would make life easier for everyone.

I repeat, trying to successfully play these constant one-twos with Giroud acting as a post has proven to be an inefficient approach against the good teams. If the opponents press high, it's not going to work and it requires you to commit almost too many players forward in order to force the opponents to drop back down into their own half so you can play that kind of football. The tools to bypass their pressing in more efficient ways are not there due to the lack of pace, the lack of good movement and the poor ball retention by players such as, well Giroud himself. He's like you say, a post. If he has to receive it and do something himself for a second he'll lose the ball...
Too limited. Not good enough, a hindrance to the attacking play and the guy misses too many sitters. Stop being so deluded.
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Again, no idea why it has to be a striker.

Hilarious.



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I'm done for today. I think we're done too. We're just repeating the same things over and over so there's no point really. Look. If you truly believe that the guy is good enough then well, that's fine. He will be replaced in the summer though.

 

[ammarfcb]

not only has he scored...he's scored a pretty awesome goal.

checkmate ibra

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Really nice goal, had a quiet game beforehand but had no service, some nice link-up with Griezmann who looks very tidy with the ball

 

[ammarfcb]

some nice link-up with Griezmann who looks very tidy with the ball

 

[Semi-Neutral]