I found this article very interesting thought, I would share [There’s Something About Ollie] There are lots of keyboard warriors out there who dub Olivier Giroud’s first season in the Premier League as a flop. These haters, to put it politely, contain a big chunk of Arsenal fans themselves. This is a piece looking at the French striker’s contribution in his debut season. Statistically speaking, he played 47 matches in total for Arsenal last season, netting 17 goals and notching up 11 assists in the process. It took him only four starts to score his first Premier League goal. Meanwhile, he played two other games in the Champions League and Carling Cup where he scored once and assisted another. By that time, he had featured in 3 other games as a sub in the league. That’s not too shabby for a debutant. But the way English media represented Giroud’s goal drought, it seemed like he was some 50 million striker who was not getting a goal for 14-15 games (read: Torres). The problem with Giroud was that in his first two games against Sunderland and Stoke city, he missed two glorious chances which gave some supporters a mindset about him. The long range shot against Stoke, instead of a simple pass to Ramsey, annoyed some fans since it made him look like a glory hunter rather than a team player. After these two incidents, a miss from Giroud is always exaggerated. Also, the fact that his job was to fill the shoes of a certain Dutch Judas didn’t help him either. Moreover, every forward in this world misses a sitter every now and then, which includes the likes of the great Messi. After some time, the ardent critics of Giroud started to say that he does not score important goals. For those people, I have listed out some of his important contributions: 1. The equalizer against West Ham(A), in the same place where Chelsea lost and Man Utd and Man City drew. 2. The goal against Schalke (A) in the Champions League. 3. Two goals in game against Fulham where we ended up drawing 3-3 because of a penalty miss from Arteta. 4. The equalizer against Liverpool at the Emirates 5. The winner against Norwich 6. The season-turning goal against Bayern at the Allianz Arena But Giroud’s another important ability is to bring others into the game and linking up play with them. It’s no wonder that he managed eleven assists. Personally, I do not find any difference between a goal and an assist because both count as one goal for Arsenal. All the spectacular goals we scored this season were assisted by none other than Giroud. The magical volley of Podolski and Gibbs, the winner of Jack Wilshere against Swansea and also his winner against Montpellier were all assisted by the Frenchman. His tally of 17 goals and 11 assists in his debut season in England is the 2nd best in the history of Arsenal. We can see this stat a bit differently. For instance– “he contributed 28 goals directly in his debut season in England.” Does this make him sound like a flop? I don’t think so. All of the writing above was just about some statistics. Let’s go deeper into the game. Giroud offered something different up front for Arsenal. The way he held up the ball up front and won headers against the big defenders in England was not usual for Arsenal. It’s true his technical quality is not at the same par as Robin van Persie but he has the ability to cover his lacking by bringing others to the game, playing one-twos and giving wonderful layoffs to others. If you analyze his defensive ability, he is a brilliant defender during the time of corner and free kicks. The way he cleared the ball with his head during the corners was simply brilliant. This was a much needed quality for Arsenal regarding the fact how vulnerable we were in those areas in previous seasons. His heading is also a good addition to our offensive play. He’s an asset during the corner an the other end of the pitch too. He can score goals, put the big defenders under immense pressure with his physical presence. This is obviously a welcome quality for Arsenal. The problem with our game play is Giroud needs good quality of crosses in the box which our wingers do not provide well enough. Theo, Poldi, Chambo and Gervinho do not provide quality crosses from the wings. Imagine what might happen if Giroud played for Bayern where he would have Robbery as his wingers. And it’s certainly no coincidence that he was a top target for Bayern once. Giroud is certainly a wonderful team player. The way he celebrates after each goal he scores is a joy to watch. His work rate for the team should not go unnoticed, too. He was fit for the whole of last season, not like a certain player who used to be in the treatment table for 8 months each season. You lot might wonder that I’m trying to brand Giroud as world class player like Falcao or Cavani. I am not. He has some drawbacks. He needs to improve his finishing, pace and some other qualities too. What I’m trying to say is that he certainly does not deserve the hate/criticism he received during the season. Because contributing 28 goals is certainly decent and not a fluke. You obviously need proper quality to replace Benzema in the French national team setup. With the magical wave of Le Prof, I’m sure he will just get better in the following season. We should not forget the fact that this is just his 3rd season in first division football. He was a League 2 player two seasons earlier. A late bloomer is what you can call him. Considering these facts, he is a good buy for Arsenal. I know Arsenal used to have the likes Henry, Bergkamp, Wright and Judas, and Giroud is not in that class right now, but you can not judge a foreign player in the Premier League in his debut season. And I’m waiting very eagerly to watch him next season in the lone striker role for Arsenal. Tactically he gives us 3 options. He can be a lone striker, he can be the perfect striker for a Plan B and he can be much effective in a 4-4-2 formation as well. If this is what counts as a flop in modern day football, I weep for the young strikers trying to breakthrough. Written By : Priom Munasir You can follow Priom on twitter @PriomAFC. Spcial Thanks To : Sports Express
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 17:03:55 +0000
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