Lay-off Giroud – Arsenal team mates are not helping him

I am going to surprise a few people now and tell you that Arsene Wenger does not pick his team and tactics with the deliberate intention of causing us Arsenal fans grief. He may be stubborn at times and there may be other faults that can be laid at the feet of the Frenchman but the idea that he does things to make Arsenal struggle and lose is just daft.

So his decision to select our struggling striker Olivier Giroud to start against Norwich and Sunderland the week before was because he thought it was the best thing for the club, and not just to get one of our key players back in form because Arsenal are in a fight and need all the points we can get.

The goal drought goes on for Giroud though, so the criticism goes on as well but I thought I would give the big man some support. It is clear that his form is far from it’s best and a lot of that is down to lack of confidence but his team mates are really not helping him get himself out of this rut.

Against a well drilled Norwich he had a tough task to do and very little time and space in a congested part of the pitch and to be honest he had very little impact in that first half, highlighted by the fact that his 15 touches was the lowest of any player.

But this highlights my point as well because if he is not getting the ball it is hard for him to influence the game. The narrow and congested set up of the visitors meant it was hard to bring Giroud’s link up to bear but the balls in to him were poor.

That set up did leave width, though, and with Giroud’s aerial ability you might have thought that crossing the ball was a good tactic but we did not use that width and any crosses were floated in from deeper positions. After Welbeck came on and stretched the defence Giroud had more freedom and started to have more say and when a cross came to him he provided a great assist.

Against Man City it will be different and Welbeck is likely to start up front but in the final home game against Villa it could be back to Giroud. If so try to see that he needs the support of his team mates as well as the Arsenal fans.

Tags welbeck Wenger

18 Comments

  1. Nobody is saying that Wenger deliberately makes choices that lead to bad results. We are saying his choices lead to bad results because the game has passed him by.

    To play Giroud is one such choice. Henry and half the football world are right in saying you will never win a major trophy with Giroud. Giroud is distinctly unexceptional.

    You have to speak about his link-up play because that is all he sort of delivers. How many times do we speak about Aguero’s link up play or Kane’s link up play? Giroud offers very little of what a modern day striker needs in the PL.

    To suggest it is time to stick with him and rebuild his confidence with 3 games left in the season is tactically naive. We need the points more that we do Giroud’s confidence.

    If Ozil and Sanchez drag their feet on a new contract, part of the reason will be because they have to play with Giroud, a player who should never be in the same starting lineup with them.

    We had many other options then to stick with Giroud this season, the decision to stick with him was a major error leading to many lost points, a decision Wenger should take full responsibility for. Problem is Wenger doesn’t take responsibility.

    1. Like rally.
      We have not been fluid all season even when Cazorla was fit.
      And you know why,
      1 Ramsey on the wing or CM ( no football brain).

      2 Giroud in attack( limited and sorry excuse for a striker at a top team, one trick pony,flick and tap-in footballer

      3 Ox on the wing ( kick and follow, head to the ground footballer, no football brain

      These 3 guys have no clue about what to do with the ball. All lack close control . Ox can only run with the ball, giroud cannot run or move and Ramsey cannot make simple passes or read a game.
      I said at the beginning of the season that thus team cannot win the league because of lack of fluidity. But when I made my comment, it was because of what the likes of Man city had.
      Never in a million years did I envisage the team to unravel this way.
      In February , I advocated for a team of

      Welbeck /Theo
      Joel Campbell
      Alexis.
      Ozil
      El Nieny
      Coqueliin
      Bellerin
      Montreal
      Gabriel
      Kolcieny

      This is our best and fluidest squad of players in their natural position.
      With Joel Campbell supplying another assist and playmaking outlet and swapping Gabriel with mertesacker based on opponents.
      All Mr beans had to do was to tactically build in solidity.
      Guess what he did.
      He persisted with what was not working for 4 months.

  2. “not just to get one of our key players” Giroud is a key player!
    Giroud best form is 14 EPL goals/season, that’s not a key striker record for Arsenal …

    1. People seem to forget that Joel Campbell is striker and not a winger.
      A pretty damn good counter attacking striker as well.
      I have no doubt in my mid that if he had got a run upfront like Giroud, he will be in double EPL figures by now.
      Giroud has been in the league for close to 5 years now.
      He remains a C-list striker.
      Man city are having a shocking season. Look at Aguero. He has barely played. He is not out of first gear yet.
      Look at where he is on the scorers chart.
      Put Ozil behind that Aguero and he will be on like 40 goals already.
      Ighalo is on £30,000 a month. Giroud is on £90,000. Ighalo terrorises defenders, Giroud doesn’t. Ighalo scores out of nothing, giroud doesn’t, Ighalo has only Deeny, Giroud has Ozil and Sanchez.
      Giroud like many other arsenal players do not represent value for me.
      I doubt we will be able to flog him off based on the amount we are overpaying.
      Like Sendoros, Benthner,Denilson and others, we are stuck with him until the end of his contract.

  3. I hope Giroud gets sold to another team (better or worse than Arsenal) and I hope he goes and scores 20 goals a season for that team. Yes he is definitely underperforming, yes he is not at the level that Arsenal need their first striker to be. But at the end of the day, he doest create the line up with himself in it, he just plays his best which earns him the nod according to the manager. And he’s actually a decent player. Degrading him won’t drive him to score. Don’t blame him for not scoring just support him until he starts to score again.

    1. “Don’t blame him for not scoring” yes but blame Wenger in the first place to stick with him all these years …

  4. Who is degrading him? Should we insult him by assuming that if he is not told he is a world class striker that his fragile ego and self image are hurt. Can he honestly think he is an exceptional player?

    In sports your performances get evaluated based on the results you put on the pitch. Nobody is interested if he is a nice guy or a smart guy or a kind guy or a cheat. We merely say he is not a good enough striker for a team with aspirations to win a major trophy.

    Are we such a team? I don’t think so. But the club and Wenger keep telling us they want to win the PL, there actions tell us something different and never replacing Henry or RVP is part of that message.

  5. Top assist in the epl. Our top striker no where near the top three! You start asking questions with few answers.

  6. What is really daft is saying some fans are suggesting Wenger uses Giroud so we can lose or to frustrate fans…the problem is and will always be Wenger’s misplaced faith in average players to do the jobs of exceptional players…..and if the other players are not helping Giroud by not giving him more of the ball I suggest that could be because they have given him balls after balls for years and he’s never really convinced with his erratic finishing….for every goal he has scored in his Arsenal career he had wasted another 5 put on a plate for him and if that is not frustrating for his teammates I don’t know what is…..Ozil should be out of sight for the assist charts if Giroud is even averagely clinical and not so wasteful….

  7. Forget deluded Wenger…can’t believe some out there are still flogging this dead donkey as a thoroughbred!

  8. the problem is that walcott is so poor at the moment and Welbeck was not much better than Giroud as sole striker either
    so wenger is caught to the choice of 2 strikers who perform just occasionally

    basically both Giroud and Walcott have to be sold and we need a proper striker and a quick winger
    main arsenal problem is not scoring especially after Cazorla got injured

  9. Henry has the ‘hindeyes’ he knew that arsenal will not win major trophies with OGthe main striker.

    I like him to manage this team next season, he has the desire to win and he exactly know the kind of players to bring in the team.

    To be honest I am very tired a striker who can’t even make a single take ons. Very poor OG

    1. I would not like Henry to manage at this early stage of his career. He does not have the experience yet IMO.

      If we are going with a young manager and not a big name manager like (Pep, Klopp, Simeone, Moureen), I would prefer Koeman or Pochettino. These two have shown results with more than one club and are ambitious.

  10. G-rude and 15 touches in the 1st half did he..

    A Messi, or a muller might get 3 touches but one of them might end in a goal.

    That’s the difference isn’t it. The sharpness (effectiveness and efficacy) of the tool not how many times it is used.

    It’s like Arsenal’s football in general. Pass the ball about to try and see how quickly we can wear down the leather on it, without, any real purpose, speed or dynamism. It is barca without teeth.

    We simply do not carry enough of a threat (because of our players, system and leader, or lack there of) and what’s more we are defensively naive.

    IMO Giroud‎ like a number of Arsenal players are not of adequate quality. But, they have a manager who cannot see this, and who is and has been unable to procure and drill a Title winning team for 12 years.

    So this should come of no surprise.‎

  11. Against a compact defence Giroud is next to useless, as is any striker, its our system at fault.

    Since Caz injury we’ve been extremely slow in transition and played very one dimentionaly. Any well drilled defence can make it hard for us.

    The only player to add width and actually cross the ball with any quality is Walcott. So the defence sits in two banks of four and closes the lines in between and as usual we try and thread the eye of the needle…….

    All very very predictable

  12. Target man. Does anyone know wha that means.
    The wingers should be offering 20 plus goals just as he has. He plays with back to goal. It is a different position almost than your Kane’s etc.

    1. What wingers?
      Isn’t it obvious?
      Our winger exist to give Giroud a tap-in.
      they mostly score only when another striker is on the pitch.

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