Arsenal: Antoine Griezmann Would Not Replace Giroud

Arsenal, and just about the entire known world, would benefit greatly from acquiring the services of Antoine Griezmann. But he would not replace Olivier Giroud.

Everyone lost their minds when Arsene Wenger and Antoine Griezmann shook hands, making 10 July 2016 a date to remember ad infinitum. They might as well have just signed a contract right there on the spot and solidified that the little Frenchman would be coming to Arsenal.

Naturally, the outcry was there among the Arsenal social spheres that Griezmann would make the club title favorites. Ray Parlour even went so far as to say that Arsenal should sign him (bold claim, Ray). But there were some that claimed that they wanted Griezmann to replace to Giroud. Upon reading these obscure claims, I breathed a painful sigh and rolled my eyes. Have we learned nothing?

Antoine Griezmann would not replace Olivier Giroud. That defeats the purpose. We are not going to sign Griezmann and sell Giroud. The purpose is tied to Olivier Giroud. We don’t need to replace him, we just need to give him a complimentary striker to work with.

Obviously Griezmann is the best option. As we saw at the Euros, while it was Griezmann who won the Golden Boot, it was Giroud who was responsible for three of his compatriots goals. Twice he pulled defenders and goalies with him and left Griezmann wide open and once his pristine header hit Griezmann in stride.

Even against Iceland, it took a Giroud dummy to spring Griezmann in on goal. Simply put, Griezmann would not have had the Euros he had without Olivier Giroud.

And there we have the mathematical formula to prove why Giroud is always going to be underappreciated. Griezmann scores three goals and Giroud gets just one assist, yet it was the latter who deserves more credit for setting up the goals. And it is the former who will win the awards and score more goals.

It wasn’t hard to see that in the final, after Giroud came out, Griezmann could do little of anything. Dare I say that he looked rather flustered without Giroud creating space for him.

So you see, replacing Giroud with Griezmann amounts to nothing. Let me just go ahead and say it, and I will be saying it again in about two hours: Olivier Giroud does not need to be replaced!

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Griezmann would, however, provide the perfect compliment to Giroud and would perfectly round off this Arsenal attack. With Giroud up front and Griezmann either as a second striker or a wide option, Ozil would have equally viable options on each side. And then, Giroud would also have equally viable options to create space for.

Throw Griezmann up front and replace Giroud and suddenly Arsenal’s attack is incredibly undersized and incapable of creating space. They need that big man in the box with how much possession they control around the opponent’s goal area.

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While Griezmann would be a dream come true, we have to realize that this is the capacity in which he would be used at Arsenal and it is the perfect capacity. Now, granted, against teams that hold a high line, by all means, sub Giroud for Griezmann and go with the undersized attack. But for teams that sit back against Arsenal, like most tend to do, we can’t do without Giroud.

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