A defence of our much maligned target man
Good morning my lovelies, and welcome to another episode of my ramblings, sponsored as ever by your patient understanding of my meandering nonsensical ponderings.
My my we’re a bunch of reactionary ninnies. All that positivity and good will from pre-season and the great start to the recruitment campaign is gone. It’s made off like a fart in a tornado, slipped up like a Scouser title charge, and disappeared with a poof, much like Tottenham Hotspur and their yearly claim over North London.
Anyway, let’s move on from the finger pointing to some more finger pointing.
What the hell is it with Arsenal Fans and our incessant need to vilify Monsieur Olivier Giroud? The man is a lightning rod for everything that is wrong with the team when the team plays badly, and anathema to all the plaudits handed out after a good Arsenal performance. If what we find on Twitter and in the ether that is the Online World of Arsenal can be believed, we have periods of great play in spite of him, and have terrible games because of him.
That’s just not on.
My thoughts on the matter is that Giroud is a very, very good striker, albeit a somewhat one-dimensional one. His insane ability to work with others is detrimental to him ever having to create things for himself. The reason that he never really dances past a couple of defenders and slides home a winner is because he’s never had to at Montpellier and was never asked to in this team. Our play is centered around the tiny combinations of the players in and around the penalty box, jinking this way and that and picking the moment (and the man of that moment) to feed in a scoring position. He does this outstandingly well, and anyone who claims he’s shit on account of him not fitting a particular archetype of striker is, quite honestly, wasting their time watching Arsenal. That’s not how we’re going to play with him in the team, nor should we.
You don’t try and race 100m with a fat man, you take that man sumo-wrestling.
Trying to hammer a square peg into a round hole is going to result in nothing but a battered thumb and language that’d make any self-respecting lady blush.
The addendum to that, however, is that I have noticed that our much maligned striker has been adding a little of the spectacular to his repertoire. He had a stupendous strike against Manchester City not two weeks ago, ended the season with a number of lovely finishes and who can forget this touch and control?
Now, I’m not saying to anyone to treat the man as the next Thierry Henry. He is not. He isn’t the kind of player to make too many headlines (bedroom dalliances aside of course) and you’re not going to hear about any £50 million pound bids for his services at all, ever.
He is, however, the best striker we have and the man we need to perform. He’s surrounded by a team that has been attuned to working with him, and he is being supported with players like Alexis Sanchez and the returning Theo Walcott. His understanding of the movement of the players around him is superb and he was instrumental in our form and placement up until February last year.
Granted, he was instrumental in the dropping of places too. That culpability can however be leveled at the injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil AND Walcott, the complete lack of adequate striking support, and every other player on that pitch.
I’m not going to go into the calls for Mario Balotelli to replace him other than to say that I don’t think he’s the striker we need. If we’re looking for someone to convert the chances our creative players are crafting every game, Mario is not that man.
Finally, a request. Let’s wait until after we’ve secured Champions League qualification until we start flinging vitriol, faeces and expletives the way of the club.
Never forget, if reaction drove the clubs spending policy, we’d have Scotty Parker and Shane Long as Gunners.
Never forget….
As always, keep it classy Arsenal fans.
Bryan Thomson
I’m a passionate Arsenal fan in South Africa with a penchant for the expletive and a driving need to vilify stupidity, incompetence and reactionary fact-calling at every opportunity.
I’ve been supporting Arsenal for nigh on 10 years now from my far-removed vantage at the tip of Southern Africa, and my life is all the better for it.
My heroes include Abou Diaby (for kicking John Terry square in the face, accomplishing something we’ve all dreamed of doing), Arsene Wenger (for the gift of the amazing football he’s given us over the last 20 years consistently enough for us to feel entitled to it), and every one of the Gooners singing their hearts out on match-day, no matter the performance (I’ll join them some day).
Spot on! Great write up.
But you know all the negativity isn’t from out own fans right ?
Don’t rise to all the bullshit
Keep up the good work
this is a well-written post but not necessarily correct on every point. the fact that giroud is our best striker doesn’t necessarily make him an above average striker that arsenal need to be able to compete for the premiership title, even with the abundance of creativity around him at present.
you see, strikers who are miserably left-legged like giroud are usually almost perfect with the ball at their feet(consider messi, maradona, David Silva, or even our own ozil, just to name a few). giroud is technically deficient, very clumsy with the ball and his first touch could be appalling.
what the critics are saying is that giroud may be average enough for the arsenal that are content with fighting for the fourth place alongside Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton, but if we want to compete for the top prize with Chelsea and Mancity, we need to look higher than giroud. are you aware that demba ba, lukaku or bony could make better impressions in this arsenal team without having to be a Thierry henry, a messi, or a Suarez.
Totally agreed. The man has class and control that the likes of Soldado and co dream about. People just don’t understand the game these days and only rate strikers that can dance around defences and fire one in from 30 yards every game
Really? You may be correct about folks not understanding the game these days. But or should I say BUT, it is in fact a strikers job to score as many goals as he can possibly score in the opponents net whilst being if at all possible a team player too. Now as our Ollie is a great team player that’s only 30% of the job he has to do, the remaining 70% is scoring so many goals as to help his team win trophies and to make himself such a threat that he draws the attentions of opposing teams defences to the point that he helps his team out further by drawing the attentions of defence so much as to make holes for other players to exploit. Ollie nice guy with chissled abs and team work oozing out of every pore in his body does not score enough goals to terrify the opposition by his mere presence and therefore does not create extra openings for his team mates. And this is why folks dislike him. Not because he doesn’t create or play for the team because he is not leathal enough to make up the other 70% of a top class strikers requirements. Now lastly I will say this I know folk all about soccer other than what I see and like and I’m going to assume that the same goes for you otherwise you would be airing your opinions in defence of ollie from the arsenal dugout or from your job on TV as a professional soccer pundit. Please do not insult other fans who probably know as much as you on the subject. That is until you replace Wenger as arsenal manager or maybe Gary lineker on da BBC.
However much you will defend giroud, he is off-form and and we shall play well goal chances and giroud with spoil all. he will arsenal no where i bet! even samuel eto is much far better than him
well written Emmanuel,
We just have have to accept the fact that Giroud is average for our 4th position pursuits. If Demba Ba was fed by the creative midfield of Arsenal, his strike rate would eclipse that of Giroud by far.
Arsenal as a team thrives on possession and your’e sure that when Giroud has the chance to take on a defender or pass the ball back to the midfield, he just surrenders that possession. and that is plain obvious. Get contented that we can push here and there till a Capital one cup of an FA cup presents itself, but not PL.
OG, need to used his right foot, and upper body more to be that unpredictable lethal striker we wants him to be. Also have to be tested take fight on amongst defence just like the clip above or the one Alex Sanchez exposed him with.
Talking about winning PL Titles…This season,not next or next next!
!) need to make bold decision
2) Don’t be sentimental
3) Given a choice of strikers barring the Super scale like Messi,Ronaldo…. I meant start from fresh, who would you like to have? One can do better to WIN the Titles. Now you know…Not Giroud!
4) Act fast to sign them up once identified. No point getting the guys after dropping points against Everton?Besiktas……might regret at the end of season that we miss out 4th spot or Titles by 1 or 2 points because of not decisive or trying to save 5 to 10 millions on right players.
5)Don’t be pound foolish and penny wise! Money is not a problem! Not winning Title is the problem!
Imagine you have Diego Costa calibre on top of the players we already have(may be 1 or 2 more position)…..The odds of winning…..WOW WOW !
If we insist Giroud is our Best best best!
Then,please don’t you cry for ArrSoNear at the end !
Sing YetSoFar instead!
We r the champion my friend,we keep on fighting till the end…… Errr champion…Who????
Everything wrote was actually very logical. But, think on this, what if
you were to create a awesome headline? I ain’t suggesting your content isn’t good., but suppose you added a title
to maybe get folk’s attention? I mean Arsenal receive £50 million bid for Olivier Giroud?
Never going to happen, but get behind Arsenal
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