Olivier Giroud

We’re talking about last season, do try and keep up.

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As some have said for the money there aren’t many better second option strikers in the division.

This is the kind of role he should have been fulfilling all along either late sub or a starter in certain fixtures, pity that even with Giroud playing Robin to Alexis’ Batman we’re still chasing 4th spot.

Whoops

happens.

I mean, last season we were constantly above the team that has just won 13 games on the trott.

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I guess it’s more a case of wenger being Culpable for not finishing above a team that only lost 3 games all season, although we did beat them twice

Yeah of course the buck stop with Wenger but it’s not really fair to single out giroud for last season’s failings

The same Giroud that went on a PL 15 game goal drought as #1 striker?

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I seem to remember certain games where Ozil created a ridiculous number of chances and Girlud was firing blanks at every opportunity

@Darkseid - Victim of overplaying and lack competition.

In the context of our big ‘world class’ players contributing, they both failed to live up to their hype for over 38 games, Ozil and Sanchez are far more culpable. You’re just using Giroud as an easy scapegoat to pin the title failure on cause he’s never been universally liked here. It’s really a collection of factors which prevented from winning the title. Giroud shares the same level of blame as Ozil in my opinion, Alexis share more blame is even greater than both chuck Theo in there as well.

@SRCJJ - Well it’s pretty much a fact in the league Alexis was generally more wasteful with chances created, and therefor Ozil’s ability, than Giroud. In fact out of all the attackers at Arsenal in 15/16 Giroud is the only one who maintained an credible relationship with Ozil being joint top in the league in terms of assist to goalscorer

Our best run this season came with Giroud benched

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I’m not using Giroud as anything I’m simply questioning your assertion that Sanchez and Ozil are equally to blame compared to a striker that went on a barren run of 15 games when the likes of Chelsea, United and City weren’t at the races.

I know you like Giroud and all, however, your argument here isn’t a great one period.

Talking about being overplayed and lack of competition is minimising culpability to the extreme.

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Tbf they drew 12 games all season too which is also a quite significant number over 38 games.

Well if my argument is that great what does that make yours? Beyond saying “Giroud didn’t score for 15 games” which in itself is very lazy soundbite that’s become over trivialized in the context of the title race. there’s no real insight in your posts into the deeper issues surrounding that drought such as lack of competition and lack of rotation or acknowledgement of others equally culpable.

Anyway I come to expect that kind of selective bias from Arsenal fans

You talk as if Giroud was the only offensive outlet in the team, when you have £30m ‘winner mentality’ Alexis in your front 3 why isn’t more scrutiny being shown at him for performing worse than giroud throughout the season?

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And I could say I come to expect the bias towards Giroud from you, I’m not saying others were also not culpable or that lack of rotation or the fact he didn’t have adequate competition doesn’t play a factor.

As I said your assertion that Özil and Alexis if any are equally culpable doesn’t ring true to me simple as that.

Sanchez definitely fell off in his second season and was rightly scrutinised on these forums, however, he can get a pass since he did the business in his first season played Copa America back to back in his first two seasons with us. Now he’s back to ripping up the league playing up top to boot.

Also I could use the same argument you have about Özil and Sanchez particularly lack of rotation, they both get damn near played to death every season because the team can’t live without them.

I wouldn’t call it bias view towards Giroud, it more like balanced POV. It pretty much clear Giroud has never been well liked by large sections of Arsenal fans for a variety of valid and stupid reasons.

Sanchez was not ‘rightly scrutinised’ anywhere, that just plain wrong. I remember on this very forum asking why the the level on blame is so disproportionate, why isn’t question about alexis being asked? People made lame excuse for him because they were afraid to criticize a likable player

He played a Copa America this summer too and he hasn’t been rested extensively either his condition is exactly the same as it was at the start of last season. Difference is this season Wenger moved him to CF where he’s generally alot less wasteful.

You could use the same argument and it would be valid because ultimately the back stops with Wenger.

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I don’t excuse Sanchez performances last season and I was actually critical of him too. It’s predominantly the fact that our main striker missed far too many chances and went 15 games without scoring a goal. You can blame Sanchez and Ozil all you want but the primary function of a striker to score goals and if he isn’t scoring goals he’s not doing his job.

Speaking for myself I don’t dislike Giroud I simply disliked him as our #1 striker because try as he might he wasn’t quite good enough to be.

With that said I can respect the fact he’s dragged himself up from lower tiers in France, winning the Ligue 1 with Montpelier as the leagues top scorer and being a mainstay in the France national team at major tournaments. Plus moving to a top club in England and doing quite well in spite of the amount he cost.

Perhaps you didn’t see it but on the old forum Sanchez did get stick for his second season, to say that he did isn’t “wrong” at all.

Ultimately If Wenger had utilised Giroud the way he should have i.e. a viable #2 option under a much more capable striker he’d be on his way to being a club icon.

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The whole concept of the ‘main striker’ in this context is absolute rubbish. It just another one of the these simpleminded football tropes that makes it easy for the common fan to generalize.

Just because Sanchez was coming off the left doesn’t diminish his goal scoring responsibility. Alexis averaged 3.6 shots per match throughout the season, that’s in the same bracket as Aguero, Kane, Vardy and Lukaku aka best forwards in the league and it’s actually MORE than Giroud’s average shots per match throughout the season yet Giroud scored more league goals than him despite playing less minutes. What does that tell you about how was more efficient in front of goal?

All the forwards around him league goal returns are in the high teens whereas alexis is on 13 which was largely padded by a goal flurry against bottom half opposition after our league chances were already dead and buried. It’s clear Sanchez failed in front of goal and he’s the one who missed too many chances.

If anything Giroud is the only Arsenal attacker who barely did his job properly. Sanchez and Theo both went missing for large part of 15/16, their goal return was incredibly poor.

Once again with Ozil you make excuses as if Giroud was the only offensive player in this team. He has a has front 3 to utilize

You can write all the paragraphs you want mate but Giroud didn’t score for 15 games and that borders on inexcusable.

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Not saying that Alexis wasn’t a bit inconsistent last season, but the thing about center forwards is that they usually take their chances from better positions and so have it easier to score goals, which would also go for Aguero, Kane, Vardy and Lukaku and makes your point not quite that strong.

I’d also add that Giroud having less shots on goal on average is a problem on its own in the setup of ours and can be seen as a hinderance when he’s not running hot like he’s now.