Olivier Giroud has slowly surrendered his place as first-choice striker for Arsenal and France this season, and seems to have totally lost his confidence in front of goal. Through his career at the Emirates he has always seemed to be very emotional and is greatly affected by criticism from fans and pundits alike, which has seen him go through long periods without scoring before finally regaining his scoring boots.
I would imagine that reading three months worth of rumours suggesting that Arsenal were trying to buy top class striker to relegate him to the bench didn’t help, and neither did the emergence of Wenger’s willingness to give Theo Walcott a trial as the Gunners centre-forward. But maybe lady luck has returned to the 28 year-old as last night Karim Benzema was unavailable through injury, and Giroud started for France in the friendly against Denmark in Copenhagen.
And he started immaculately with two goals in the first six minutes, although neither were particularly well-taken, at least they had finally found the net. Having never scored a hat-trick for Arsenal, France or even in Ligue 1 with Montpellier, this was the perfect opportunity to get a third with 84 minutes left in the game, but couldn’t manage it even when gifted a one-on-one against Kasper Schmeichel.
Giroud said after the game: “It is important to be decisive but I could have done better. I’m glad that luck has chosen my camp this time.
“Now it is part of a striker’s job to put away all their chances, I have not been doing so. I haven’t had enough efficiency or success. Tonight they went in, that’s better.”
Better, but not exactly inspiring. But if he can score two goals when he admits he is not playing well, surely that will boost his confidence a little bit?
talking as if he doesn’t score for us at all……the guy hasn’t performed half has bad is people rate him here
Still one comment?
I should be wrong
@Tyno You should be wrong bout what lol
Giroud. Hmm well I agree he needs confidence. He just doesn’t seem to hit the ball very hard at the moment, like he expects them to be saved so puts it on a plate. Inconistent definitely. When we won ten games in a row he scored in nearly everygame, then Henry made his statement about not winning the League with Giroud, then he didn’t score for the next eight games. I do hope that these goals inspire him but his comment afterwards sounded like nothing had changed.
Personally, I liked his response.
Happy to have contributed, but still critical of himself as he knows he can do better.
I don’t necessarily think it’s how hard he’s hitting them, it seems to be his connection that’s lacking which is a sign of over-thinking things.
There are certain games where Giroud is ineffective, there are some games where Theo is ineffective, there will be times when Theo is out of form and Giroud is in form and vice versa. ….They are two totally different players who give us two very good options up front, I thought this is what we all asked for, options and different tactics for different opponents. ….let’s not slate our players if they are out of form or when they are ineffective in certain games, because in the very next game they could be MOTM. …next month Theo could be out of form and Giroud could be banging them in……either way let’s just support our players.
Yep.. Though if Theo keeps putting in the work-ethic and quality of runs he’s been making, I struggle to think of a kind of game that he won’t be effective.
Bit lucky with both finishes, but still, will hopefully relieve some pressure.
Theo seems to slowly be winning over a lot of doubters which is absolutely brilliant as he seems to be growing in confidence every game. Facing defenders up, tracking back, working harder than I’ve personally ever witnessed and showing the composure I think many fans forgot he had.
But we have a very congested period coming up.. A few goals for Giroud can only help his obvious lacking confidence and we’ll hopefully see him lift and contribute. I have faith he will.
Yeah i also thought the same, i havent seen theo running so hard for a tackle for a loooong time
and did you see the finish against estland? i remembered the walcott from 12/13 who by the way had much better/equal stats compared to hazard and sanchez from last year
i’m not saying that he’s better but he’s (much) worse either…
he isnt*…
and yeah i am a huge fan of theo he is one of my 3 fav players so i am a bit partial ?
Olivier Guriod must get himself out of his Premier League goals scoring dip at Watford, as I believe he has now must have regained his goals scoring confidence back after scoring 2 away goals for his country last night.
Glad he is back on score sheet. And its a good thing that he understands the situation that he is inefficient and Walcott is deserving starter ahead of him. I will re-iterate that I want him to score 15 goals this season and if he does that he has done his part for Arsenal.
I saw his goals yesterday.
If he keeps on doing exactly that he will score more.
The first one he called the ball, watched for the offside, accelerated well and shot with power and direction.
Yes…smeichel did catch it but it was a strong shot so it got away.
the second was a typical striker goal….he was there for the rebound.
For me giroud skill is to get everybody to have the chance and then he scores a fair amount.
People applauded Walcott s performance. I did too. Yet he didn’t score .