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Is Olivier Giroud’s talent misjudged by Arsenal fans?
Arsenal fans are normally polar characters – one week, Mesut Ozil is the greatest number ten to ever wear a red and white shirt. The following Sunday, he should be sold to Everton for ten million pounds at the very most because he’s absolutely terrible.
The Gunners’ play often creates this style of criticism in that there is an ebb and flow to the form of the Arsenal team as a whole. As we have seen in the past, sometimes they look like title winners, and sometimes they are played off the park at home, 2-0 by West Ham.
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Many of the players in the Arsenal team have quite mercurial natures – the arrival of Alexis Sanchez sparked the beginning of change in this sort of attitude, but players like Ozil, Walcott and most noticeably Olivier Giroud, only play at their best when they want to.
Each of these three players mentioned has different strengths, and so it is visible whenever one of them is not on their game. The trouble with Olivier Giroud, out of all of them, is that when Giroud is starting for Arsenal and he is not on his game, Arsenal have troubles with scoring goals.
Mesut Ozil is replaceable on bad form – Arsenal can put Santi Cazorla in his place, or just eliminate his role entirely and use Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere as their main playmakers. Walcott is expendable as well, and when he is not playing well, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanchez are capable replacements on the wings.
The uniqueness with Olivier Giroud’s situation is that because of the trust Arsene Wenger has placed in him, they lack depth at his position. Danny Welbeck is the other striker on their books at the moment, but Welbeck is currently out with injury. When he returns, his squad position will be evaluated further – however, so far at the Emirates, Welbeck has failed to set the pitch alight.
After Olivier Giroud scored a first-touch bicycle kick against Crystal Palace on the weekend, Arsenal fans were delighted with his performance. That goal ended up being the winner at Selhurst Park and opened the Frenchman’s account for the 2015-16 season.
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Giroud ended 2014-15 with disappointment after a brilliant run of form during the winter. After scoring in the Gunners’ 2-0 win against Manchester City, he netted 12 goals in 15 games, an outstanding record for a Premier League striker.
After that blazing purple patch, Giroud went eight games without a goal, prior to finishing off Aston Villa in a 4-0 win to end the season. This inconsistent form leads people to have doubts about the Frenchman’s proven quality, which brings me to my main point.
Olivier Giroud is not the same mold of player that Diego Costa, or Sergio Aguero, or Harry Kane is. Costa is a Panzer tank; Aguero is a fighter jet; Kane is a striker with one good season under his belt, and Giroud is just a goal poacher.
The assumption that Olivier Giroud is a complete forward is incorrect, that is not what Wenger purchased him for. Wenger understood all the supporting pieces were in place – what he needed was someone to finish off the moves. Giroud is good in his link-up play and his aerial ability, along with being a good finisher, but for Arsenal fans to expect new skills to develop during his time in North London is unrealistic.
Wenger made the choice of buying a finished article in Giroud – his goal was simply to fine-tune the forward’s skills, and the idea worked well. The Frenchman has netted 59 goals in 107 starts since arriving, which is more than 0.5 goals per game, and that is something every big club must have if they want to challenge for any silverware at all.
Combined with his finishing ability, Giroud made 29 key passes in 27 total appearances for the Gunners in the Premier League. When you consider the amount of passes in most Arsenal attacking moves, the amount of times Alexis Sanchez sets himself up for a shot, and the amount of other creators in the side, that is a great return for a player who is a target man by trade. Olivier Giroud also adds defensive ability at the front, with his ability to make tackles and natural strength in winning most of his aerial duels.
The point being made here is not that he is good enough to not warrant a step up in quality, a la Karim Benzema, Gonzalo Higuain, and so forth. Giroud is good enough for Wenger’s liking at the moment, and if the most likely purchase for summer 2015 is Grzegorz Krychowiak and not Benzema, the manager is building his squad piece-by-piece and maybe by summer 2016, he will aim for another star up front.
Wenger has never been a manager to let players rot on his bench, and thus Danny Welbeck being reduced to a third-string role was never going to happen. If Welbeck is given his chance and shines when presented with opportunities, then Arsenal have two goal scoring options leading their line. If it does not work out, Wenger’s next step in the upcoming windows will be to replace him with someone better. Either way, they have a proven goalscorer in Olivier Giroud.
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