Does Olivier Giroud deserve so much criticism from Arsenal fans?
Olivier Giroud scored his 20th goal of this season with a sublime right footed shot against West Ham United, which happens to be his 14th goal in this season’s premier league. Arsenal fans have been very critical of Olivier Giroud’s performances. The Frenchman hasn’t been the prolific world class striker who could have been a replacement for van Persie.
He was bought for a fee of 9.6 million and the Frenchman has done enough justice to his transfer fee by having a decent tally of goals and assists this season. Most of his 20 goals and 8 assists this season came in the early part of the season as he was enjoying a very fruitful spell with Ozil, Ramsey and Walcott.
Injury to key players like Ramsey, who was storming the Premier League with his prolific and confident scoring and Walcott who has been uncharacteristically clinical this season whenever he’s played, harmed Arsenal more than we could have envisaged.
The lack of squad depth was exposed and Ozil’s dip in form is partially due to this factor. Ozil has never worked doubly hard in midfield. He is always the stylish and flamboyant player who has an eye for a pass, but can’t be asked to work hard in defence which he tries to, but cannot, because of his energy level and previous coaching. Ozil was a constant supplier to Giroud when there were ambitious midfielders like Ramsey and Walcott on the pitch. Once Giroud has the ball, he has the strength and control to hold up possession in the forward regions and release Walcott or Cazorla or Ramsey to begin link up plays or set them up for goals.
Giroud’s off the ball movement has never been poor. He does a decent job to position himself in the penalty box as he has the desire to get goals. His finishing has been average though, as he is far from being clinical. He has many misses to his name which Arsenal supporters dislike, as they have been pampered by the likes of Robin van Persie and Thiery Henry being absolutely merciless in front of goal. But that does not mean he deserves so much criticism, especially when his price tag and expectations are nowhere close to the level of van Persie or Henry.
Arsene Wenger had bought Giroud as he saw the potential of releasing Theo Walcott’s pace and letting him finish off moves and get goals. Giroud was expected to be a goal poacher, which he naturally is, and get about 15 goals per season in the league. In 2012, there were on-going negotiations with Walcott’s contract, which also meant that Wenger would have to concede to Theo’s demands. Walcott played centre forward for a few games, signed his contract and then he was pushed back to the wings. Strange, but the concept was the same- Get Walcott to score. Walcott was and still is a very important player and with the support of Olivier Giroud, both can link up and score goals.
Giroud’s major weakness is his pace with the ball. He is slow and cannot have runs with the ball. So he needs runners in the midfield to support him and he delivers. He needs constant suppliers who are also ready to run into space, so that he can pass to them and he can carry on running into space that is much nearer to the goal, creating an easy link up play. With the continued absence of Ramsey and Walcott, things changed. The replacement Oxlade Chamberlain is a different type of player altogether, who is a dribbler with amazing pace with the ball who is not so much known for his runs into space. Wilshere is a box to box playmaker while Arteta and Ozil rarely put in the hard running into space-They are typical passers. Cazorla was the one guy who popped up with his versatility along with Rosicky, but the Gunners had already lost their best form. Most of the times, Giroud was blamed for his weak shooting which was used as an excuse for the drop in form of the team and he became the butt of all Arsenal jokes, despite the fact that the major culprit is lack of squad depth. 14 goals and 8 assists in the league this season, Giroud definitely deserves some praise that he rarely gets.
STATS: SQUAWKA