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Olivier Giroud’s Call for Karim Benzema to Arsenal Slightly Disconcerting

By Josh Sippie

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Everyone who is anyone will tell you that Arsenal could use an upgrade at striker. Olivier Giroud just is not enough to bring titles to Arsenal. They have called for Edinson Cavani, Karim Benzema, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more. While I am in disagreement, I would obviously still welcome any of those names to Arsenal’s front lines.

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Apparently, so would Olivier Giroud. “It would have been good if Karim had signed too, eh?” he said via ESPNFC.

Karim Benzema at Arsenal would be a dream come true. He is a master of link up play, he crushes every other striker in the known world in assists and he is the clinical finisher that Arsenal are literally dying without. Not only that, but he has an already-established partnership with our man Olivier Giroud at the French National level. This partnership propels them both to produce their best work in International competition and Giroud has pointed that out.

Therefore it only stands to reason that the same could be true at the club level. After all, it worked once, why wouldn’t it work again?

All that being said, I am not okay with Olivier Giroud publicly saying that Arsenal should have grabbed his countryman. Maybe it was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but we know that Giroud has confidence problems. He has admitted it himself and Wenger has pointed it out as well. When it goes bad, it goes terribly for our Frenchman.

Normally he at least makes a case to stand up for himself. He has against the vulture pundits out there. But now he is sympathizing with the fans saying that they are right to call him a lamp post and they are right to clamor for new strikers.

This may sound a bit convoluted from an argument perspective, but even if all of that is true and he does believe that Arsenal need more, I do not want Arsenal’s main striker coming out and saying that he is not enough. Even if he has to lie through his teeth, hearing something like “we don’t need more than what we have, I can lead this attack” would have been far more desirable. Hearing “we need more attackers, we need Karim Benzema” sounds awfully similar to “you all are right, I am not good enough.”

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Giroud did save a little face by saying that he thinks this club can do special things this year, but by then all I could think was “if Giroud doesn’t think he is enough, why should I?” I have always defended and will continue to defend Giroud. I admire his goal scoring ability and when you put someone in the middle of this attack, they are going to look so much better. He really does mesh well with this attack and has become its focal point. We saw it last year when he went on a tear scoring 16 goals in 21 games. That is insane. If he did it once, why can’t he do it again?

It is nice that Giroud knows his own limitations. But I would have preferred a remark of confidence in this situation. Last year when Arsenal were linked to Jackson Martinez, Giroud lashed out about how it sparks him to perform at his best when Arsenal were linked to other strikers. And then he went and performed at his best. This time it is the opposite. Hopefully it will not be the opposite in his performance.

Maybe it is an overreaction to something small and non-newsworthy. Yet, one of the biggest complaints surrounding Olivier Giroud is that he needs to learn to be ruthless. He needs to learn to be hungrier, fiercer and stronger. Statements like this do him no favors in that pursuit.

Next: Joel Campbell ready to start his Arsenal career

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