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Arsenal: Olivier Giroud The Greatest Goat In History
By Josh Sippie
Arsenal are blessed with a fantastic striker in Olivier Giroud, yet he continues to be the goat of every loss. Will this ridiculous trend ever turn around?
There are things about every fan base that will get on your nerves. Manchester United fans still think Wayne Rooney is world class. Chelsea fans are a bit choosy about who they let on a subway. Manchester City fans continue to mistake blips of success with prolonged relevance. Tottenham fans support a team in North London that isn’t Arsenal.
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But Arsenal fans have a flaw too. At least a majority of them do. Arsenal fans continue to blame Olivier Giroud for each and every loss for the past four years and quite frankly, it is getting rather old.
What does Olivier Giroud have to do to impress North London? When he has a great game and Arsenal win, sure, everyone loves him. But when he has a great game and they lose, even if he had nothing to do with the loss, the finger pointing turns to Olivier Giroud.
This guy has absolutely everything Arsenal need. Everything. He has the size and strength to be the best physical striker in the most physical league. Does that make him the best physical striker in the world? I would be signing my own death warrant if I said yes, but let’s just say I am not opposed to entertaining the thought that he is.
Since he arrived in England, no one has scored more headed goals.
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His size and strength provide a fantastic backboard for the offense. Not just on set pieces and crosses, but in the general attack. It has become a focal point of Arsenal’s attack to feed the ball to Giroud, let him hold up play and then release the ball for his team mates. Not a soul in England could do that any better and dare I say not a sole in the world could do that better. It is the role be was made to play.
Arsenal is a team that does not filter all their goals through a No. 9 hitman. Giroud is not that kind of striker nor should we expect him to be. Arsenal is a team that builds up their attack and finishes through a variety of weapons. Giroud is one of those weapons and while he does indeed top the list of weapons, he is not the only weapon. Praising Giroud for his versatility on the front lines and rejoicing in the number of skills he employs and then lambasting him for not being a ‘goals only’ striker is so counter-intuitive it makes my head spin.
Yet, for those of you who want goals, Giroud provides goals (what?!?!). That’s right! Giroud scores goals right up there with the Aguero’s and the Costa’s of England.
Not only that, but for those of you clamoring that Giroud misses so many chances, consider that Giroud has a 54% shot accuracy, just behind Vardy (59%) and Aguero (58%)(per Squawka.com). Shocking, right? Not only that, but Giroud also created chances with the best in the league as well, in fact, he is third with 1.16 per 90 compared to Vardy’s 1.22 and Kane’s 1.20 (again, via Squawka). The numbers are right there in front of us.
To think that Giroud could actually be the striker everyone wants Arsenal to have, yet they can’t see that we already have him.
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Let’s also consider another of Giroud’s greatest assets and one of the main avenues through which Arsenal finds success – he creates space for his team mates. By using that strength to occupy the majority of opposing defenses, that allows the Alexis’s and the Ramsey’s to hang out just outside of the box and find space.
Think of the Leicester game. So much of that game hinged on Giroud occupying Huth and Morgan – and he did. That is not the first time it has happened. It happened against Manchester City too. Thanks to Giroud holding the defense’s attention, his team mates are able to find space. There is no way to quantify this contribution without actually seeing him do it, but you don’t have to dig too much to find it. He does it nearly every game.
Now, let’s consider the Barcelona game. It was after this match that it hit me that Giroud may just be the permanent goat of Arsenal. It was a big game for Giroud. I mentioned before the match that Giroud could define himself in this match. I wouldn’t say that he did, but he certainly didn’t cost Arsenal the game with ‘blunders’ and ‘numerous missed chances’.
Let me tell you something about Giroud’s performance. It was great. He was a force in the box, he was denied a goal by a brilliant save and he did all he could to spur Arsenal.
When you get down to it, it was not a game that was built for Giroud. Whatever success on goal Giroud was going to find from this game was going to have to come from aerial prowess. Aerial prowess is a derivative of wide service and with Alexis and the Ox/Walcott out wide, Giroud was never going to get proper aerial service. Arsenal only had one corner and only completed four crosses (via WhoScored).
Again, that kind of match is not meant for Giroud to score. He did turn one of those crosses on goal and it was a beauty but Stegen denied him.
So Giroud did the next best thing. He made himself big on the pitch (on both ends, no less) and enacted his token hold up play. He gave his midfielders a backboard to bounce passes off of and he only lost possession twice. That is a good day against a team that everyone agrees is ‘not even of this planet’.
Yet social media was rampant with hate towards Giroud. “Fans” were saying this was just like the first leg against Monaco. They could not be more wrong. Against Monaco, Giroud was a mess. He was firing blanks all over the box. It was literally painful to watch.
Against Barcelona, he only had one attempt on goal from lack of service. His sole mistake came from a miscommunication with Theo Walcott. Aside from that miscommunication, Giroud was busting it all over the pitch, trying to force Arsenal into the lead. He realized that this game was not exactly going the way to best utilize his size in the box so he did his best to impact it in every other way imaginable. And he did.
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This is not the first time I have been disgusted with the response Arsenal nation has had to Giroud. I’m sure it won’t be the last either. I just hope that when all is said and done, that Giroud will be appreciated for all that he has done at Arsenal and for what he has always been at Arsenal – a damn good striker.