We can’t win the league with just Giroud
With a return of 23 goals and 9 assists for Arsenal last season, the stats aren't too in favour of my opinion on Oli. However, I will go on to justify my reasoning behind why the league won't be ours next season with just Giroud upfront.
Yes, he can hold the ball up well; I'll give him that. But can he get on the end of a wonderful Mesut Ozil through ball when we need him to? No is the answer to that question, and that frustrates me. With the unnecessary criticism that Mesut was constantly receiving last season, Giroud wasn't helping on his part at all. In Madrid, Ozil was used to threading delicate but fast-paced through balls to Ronaldo and Benzema and with their ability to get on the end of them, Mesut racked up more assists in Europe than Xavi & Iniesta combined.
For us last season, due to Giroud's lack of pace and skill to run in behind the last defender, Ozil racked up a disappointing 10 assists in the Premier League (only 1/5th of which to our main striker – Olivier himself).
I just can't help but think another season with just a 6'4 lampost up front (harsh, I know) will do us no good at all. Our downfall last season wasn't just the injuries to Ramsey and Walcott. The main reason our form dipped was because we didn't buy a striker in January, when we were top of the best league in the world. And because of that, we went into the 'big games' with an already worn out Olivier Giroud who failed to score against United, Chelsea, Liverpool, City and Everton.
Although it may sound like it, I'm not blaming Giroud one bit. Giroud fits into an Arsenal system that plays to his strength; he holds up the ball extraordinarily well and brings into play our abundance of talent in the midfield. But with the signing of Alexis Sanchez now, and going into a second season where many think Ozil will retain his status as the world's best playmaker I believe that we need a striker with a little bit more pace and agility. For that matter, a striker that doesn't necessarily have to push Giroud out of the team, but one that can even play alongside him in a well-built Arsenal team returning to a two-man up top diverse side capable of scoring a load of goals. Or one that can swap with Giroud every few games.
Take a look at the other top teams in the Premier League. City have a world-class striker in Sergio Aguero leading their front line, with a choice of who partners him from a strong Edin Dzeko, to a powerful Alvaro Negredo, or a skilful Stefan Jovetic. Then Chelsea, who have signed one of La Liga's best strikers last season in Diego Costa, and have the choice to keep the prolific Romelu Lukaku, and Fernando Torres as a back-up (if he counts). Then there's United, who are bound to score a lot of goals with LVG keeping his strikers on their toes. Rooney wants the captaincy and to have a more successful season than last, whilst Van Pursestrings loves a nice £5,000 per goal bonus. Lastly, Liverpool. They may have lost the best striker in the world this summer but still have an excellent forward in Daniel Sturridge and have signed the experienced Rickie Lambert, with Loic Remy looking to follow too.
To sum everything that I've just said up, I am not looking forward to a season with just Oli up-front; we know how the season will end, and it won't be with tears of joy. I hope that Arsene pushes the boat out and goes for a different striker to Giroud, but one that keeps him in a side that will fight for every trophy at stake. With Joel Campbell or Yaya Sanogoalyet likely to be sent on loan, the final third of the field is our weakest area.
Heck with it, let's just buy Balotelli.
By Adam Demetriou
Goonersphere's Response
Thanks for your article Adam. You make your point well but we're going to have to disagree with you. You make many of our counter arguments for us when you credit him for his hold-up play and links with our midfield. Our system is designed to be a fluid and dynamic system where the goal load is shared amongst the team so as not to disrupt our ability to win games too much should crucial players be unavailable. In our old RVP-driven system we relied on everything going through him and if he was out or off-form we suffered.
Your point about Özil is a valid one but his devastating balls aren't being wasted on Giroud because he wasn't bought with Giroud in mind. Giroud cannot get any faster but Mesut can adapt his style of play and he did so remarkably well. Ten assists in his first season is anything but disappointing and the loss of Walcott was more damaging to him than Olivier's lack of pace. With Sanchez and Theo in the side this coming season we will have two players more than capable of playing from wide or through the middle to benefit from Mesut's assists and we'll still have Giroud who gets the very best out of Ramsey and Theo whose abscence cost the team the title last season. Not buying a striker in January is an overly used and far too easy excuse for why we didn't win the title last season because no top striker was available - as proven by money bags Monaco relying on loaning Berbatov to cover the loss of Falcao.
You are more than welcome to believe that Giroud is not enough on his own and whilst we would have agreed with you last year that he needed a counterfoil we would say he has that now in Sanchez and the returning Walcott. With just Olivier up front the season ended with tears of joy as Arsenal ended a nine year wait for a trophy - I wouldn't bet against it happening again with this new Arsenal team.
Once again, thank you for your article and we hope to see more from you in the future. What do you, the reader, think? Do you agree with Adam or do you think Sanchez addresses last season's issues? Leave a comment with your thoughts below.
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