Giroud: I had six very good months
Arsenal’s much-maligned striker Olivier Giroud made a remark on Tuesday which might not sit too well with fans frustrated by the outcome of the 2015/16 season.
The France international is currently on duty with his country as they prepare to host this summer’s Euro 2016 tournament.
Giroud has faced all sorts of criticism for his barren form during the second-half of last season which saw him fail to score a league goal for a staggering four months (15 consecutive games) as the Gunners conceded the Premier League title to Leicester City.
However, the 29-year-old who finally managed to find the net in Arsenal’s final two games of the campaign has now suggested that fans who bashed him for his form were wrong.
“I had six very good months and at the end of the day, when you collect the stats, this was perhaps my best season with Arsenal.” Giroud said in an interview
The former Montpellier striker, who has been jeered by his own fellow citizens at games in France, is set to start in Friday’s Euro 2016 opening game against Romania.
He does well when Arsenal play well as a team, the blames on Wenger for how the team plays.
Giroud had a great year. He scored 24 goals in all competitions including 16 league goals in 2,431 minutes of play. He scored a hat trick to get Arsenal through the group stages of the Champions League and he played in 54 games and was never unavailable due to injury. He also racked up 6 assists, second-most be a striker. Troy Deeney had 7 while Vardy and Lukaku matched Giroud with 6. Harry Kane had a single assist.
From open play, Giroud scored one league goal every 162 minutes. By comparison, Jamie Vardy scored once every 165 minutes from open play and Harry Kane scored one goal from open play for every 168 minutes he spent on the pitch. Both Kane and Vardy were starters in every game and were allowed to work through scoring droughts. Giroud was benched when he didn’t score; but that’s what happens at big clubs. Tottenham had no one else to turn to and neither did Leicester.
The only forward to average a better ratio of goals from open play to minutes is Sergio Aguero with one goal from open play for every 118 minutes he spent on the pitch.
Despite playing extremely well to end last season, he was benched in favor of Theo Walcott to start the year. He didn’t complain, he scored from the bench. When Walcott got hurt Giroud came in a scored, carrying the team while Alexis, Walcott, and Welbeck regained fitness. When Welbeck came back in good form, he was benched again. When Welbeck got hurt, Giroud picked up where he left off and scored 4 goals in three games including a hat trick v. Aston Villa to cap the season.
Giroud’s scoring record with France is as good as Benzema’s per minute of play and he is not someone who blackmails his teammates.
Romelu Lukaku, who is often mooted as a better option than Giroud scored 18 league goals, 17 of which were from open play. He scored those goals in 3177 minutes from 37 appearances, 36 of which were starts. That’s one goal form open play for every 186 minutes played.
Olivier Giroud really has only one problem. He’s not Thierry Henry. Arsenal fans also seem to be harboring the delusion that if they had a top forward they’d automatically win the title. During the Premier League era the team with the scoring champ won the title only 9 times in 22. 5 times the team with the top scorer didn’t finish in the top 3. 5 times the top scorer was on the second place team and 5 times the third place side. That includes Robin van Persie, Arsneal’s last scoring champ with 30 goals. The Gunners didn’t win the title.
Gonzalo Higuain is someone most Gooners would give their left testicle and a piter of blood to have at The emirates, but he hasn’t brought a title to Napoli. He won at Real but so has Benzema and a host of other forwards. Lukaku was so good for Everton he led them to the… wait, he led them to 11th place. Alvaro Morata is another name touted as betterthan Giroud. Because two seasons scoring 11 and 9 goals respectively some how make him world class while 20 goals a season in all competitions make Giroud chopped liver.
Giroud is plenty good enough to lead the line for a title winning team. What he needs is a back up who can stay healthy enough to allow Arsene Wenger to rotate the squad and a little help from a midfield that, except for Alexis (in the second half of the season) and Mesut Ozil, that did very little to help. The answer to Arsenal’s title drought isn’t five more league goals from Olivier Giroud (though that wouldn’t hurt), it’s ten more goals from the rest of the team.
Theo Walcott scored 5 league goals from 28 appearances, Aaron Ramsey scored 5 goals from 31 appearances, Joel Campbell scored 3 times in 19 games, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored 1 goal from 22 (mostly sustitute) appearances, Mesut Ozil scored 6 league goals to go with his 19 assists, while Alexis scored 13 goals from 30 appearances.
Add five goals to Giroud’s league total to put him in that ‘world class’ 20 league goal category and you might get another win or two, but not enough to win a title. Scatter another 10 goals among the other attacking players for Arsenal and you get a title.
A healthy Alexis, Welbeck available, or Walcott healthy, Ramsey putting in a few more here and there. That’s the difference between winning the title and reading endless whining about how Wenger should leave the club. Harry Kane won the godlen boot, scored 25 league goals, 20 from open play and the Spurs finished… wait for it… behind Arsenal. Again.
Wow…how long did it take you to write all of that?
Fans like you who accept the mediocrity of Giroud are the reason why we haven’t won a title in over 10 years.
Poor season from Giriud. End of.
Well said.
Absolutely fantastic analysis! Great comment, couldn’t agree more. So many arsenal fans genuinely think if a forward (playing for arsenal) can’t run past everyone and score on cue, then he’s useless! Henry wasn’t world class, he was different class! He was an exception that you are very rarely going to find available for 50 mil, letalone 11 we paid. I know these Giroud/wenger haters won’t admit it. But I guarantee if we were to sign a Dennis Bergkamp, in his prime, today. You would all think he was utter garbage.
Vardy and Mahrez in Arsenal. This silence now means a lot, but we need to think logically to find out the truth. Probably Vardy has signed with Arsenal but that will be announced later in July, is waiting Mahrez to sign also with Arsenal. Can Vardy refuse Arsenal and stay in Leicester with a contract for 100,000. Hardly. All other Leicester players will call Vardy blackmailer. End of team spirit, they will receive two times less than Vardy. Who would do that if Vardi does not understand, then his wife will explain that there is no way back …