He's average. We don't miss him, because we don't do anything different with him in the side. Non-challengers with him, non-challengers without him.
The two trophies we want are the premier league and chapmions league. In those two competitions he got 18 goals in 43 appearances. For a first choice striker who plays on his OWN UP FRONT, and one who is playing in front of Ozil, Cazorla, Ramsay, Walcott, Oxlade etc that is nothing to shout about. Calling someone a 'f**king idiot' because they have a different opinion to your own is definitely mod-worthy on this board. And not only that but calling their own opinion a 'fact'. The sort of stuff others might be warned for. But you're a mod doing it so all is fine and dandy I suppose.
I'd say we do miss him, shockingly miss him at set pieces, both offensively and defensively and the team lacks an outlet when under pressure, meaning if we don't get the ball to someone like Sanchez/Oxo/Welbeck in space straight away, we end up losing the ball and it comes straight back at us. Whereas Giroud would hold it up and be able to wait for someone to make a run, or play it back and start again. I'm not saying he's better than Welbeck but he's no worse and we do miss what he does bring to the team. Even though people love to hate him
We do miss him quite a bit. Giroud is established and knows how our attack works. Welbeck is still learning the ropes and i'm not so sure that he can match Giroud's quality as our "unit" upfront. Glad to have the model back so we have another dimension to our attack.
I can't work if the last two replies are jokes or not... especially the last one and the inclusion of the term 'unit'. If his redeeming quality if that 'he isn't any worse than Welbeck' that doesn't say a lot. Anyway, he won't help us win the title or the CL and we'll finish top 4 with or without him... so really... does it matter?
Im not sure if u bother reading other peoples postsif all u take out of tge ladt 2 responses are 'no worse than Welbeck' and 'unit'
Yes I read them. Giroud is not going to get us the premier league or champions league ever though. We'll finish top 4 with maybe a cup run every now and then. Agree or disagree?
Well I know that we were top of the league for a very long time with Giroud playing an instrumental part of that last season, and it was only injuries and Giroud's, Merts and Kos' tiredness, and a tactical naivety/poor performance in big games that led to us dropping out of the race. But I would like a 30-40 goal a season striker who contributes as much as Giroud elsewhere, I've always said that. Not sure where we'd get one from though. But that wasn't the original point of the post - that was to refute your claim that "he is average, we don't miss him". I and Lazurus were simply point to ways we do miss him currently in the team.
He is average and I don't miss him. 'ifs' and 'buts' are easy to use for any argument. We didn't win the league simply because we got beaten by almost every single team that were better than us. It's not as if we slipped against many poor teams. We got simply outplayed by better teams. Ergo we were never going to win the league. We were top for ages because we didn't play many of those teams better than us away from home until the 2nd half of the season. The fact is that with Giroud playing for us we've got no nearer challenging for the two meaningful trophies that we all want than we've ever been before. But then him playing or not is kind of irrelevant. He might improve us slightly, he might not. But the difference he may (or may not) offer is tiny compared to the difference we need.
Cini the question is not whether you personally miss him or he is not good enough for an Arsenal team aspiring for top honours. He is still a good CF and he contributes well for us. He gives us that different dimension where he brings in the other attacking players. Welbeck doesn't quite offer this at the moment and he is currently just getting used to a new system and players. He isn't an Henry or RVP, but he would certainly add something to our attack.
I prefer Wellbeck to Giroud upfront already and the Englishman is still learning the role. Giroud is better with link up play and in the air but Wellbecks pace and enthusiasm is a big asset. Also 4 goals in 6 apps is soo far a much better ratio than we get with Giroud.
For me they provide two different outlets. We will see how Welbeck does for the rest of the season. It's still early days and he could well get better when he becomes more used to the players and system around him. But then again it could go the other way.
Exactly I think we're missing the horses for courses option, since we've only got Sanogo on the bench (who really needs to be loaned out!). I'm really glad Welbeck has had such a good start, as I was one of the people underwhelmed by his signing, I'm also glad that he's had such a positive reception and hasn't been weighed down by any negativity yet. Hopefully he can carry on as he started...
I'm not answering a specific questions... just debating the worth of Giroud. I'm at the point now where I'm thinking... what is it exactly that he uniquely contributes in a positive sense? Just having him in our squad and the fact that he's 'ours' and has started a lot of games doesn't make him worthwhile. It's not like there is some potential that we can see where he could improve and fire us to premier league glory or champions league glory. We have him playing at peak levels. He's merely 'quite good'. So what is the point? He represents the entire state of our club right now: 'quite good' and 'happy to keep the status quo'. Building him up by saying we miss him and that he offers something different is irrelevant. He doesn't offer us the potential to win the two big trophies. So frankly who cares. I'm past the point of caring if he plays or not.
Two different options that achieve the same goal... finish top 4 and have a cup run every few years. Even better, why don't buy 5 more strikers who all 'quite good' so that we can celebrate the fact that we have even more different options... that will ultimately allow us to finish 4th like always.
To be honest I try and support our players, particularly if they try their hardest for us. And in terms of Giroud both me and Lazarus have listed all the ways we feel we're missing Giroud currently, which was the whole point of this conversation. But fair enough if you think he hasn't brought anything to the team in all the games he's played, or that anyone could score 20+ goals for us in the number of games he's played. I'm not saying your wrong, as it's your opinion, but I am disagreeing with you, and don't see that I'm likely to change your mind and vice versa. IMO until we can afford to offer £250k+ a week to players then we'll never afford the top rep strikers that are being called out for. For example I would have loved for us to sign Di Maria (not a striker I know) or Falcao but considering they are on a reported £250k and £325k a week, there's no way we'd be able to match those kinds of wages. Sad but true. Instead we need to find a Suarez style striker, while at the same time spreading the goals around the team, which is what we did - scoring more goals last season than the in RVPs last season...
Why do we need to spread the goals around? Simply because that's we tried to do last year? Simply because we've given hope of having a top class forward? The best teams in the world who win the big trophies don't rely on that... they have strikers who score loads, and score regularly, and score in the big games. Aguero, Suarez, Messi, Ronaldo, Van Persie, Costa, Lewandowski, Ibra. We only feel the need to spread the goals around because we have a such a non-threat of a striker. And screw the wages as an excuse. We are rich. We make loads of money. We pay the highest ticket prices in England (and therefore probably the world). We pay our squad players loads. We have a massive wage bill (bigger than Chelsea's). We're not Everton or Villa struggling to make ends meet.
Was this aimed at me? Firstly.. I like Giroud and defend him on these boards alot. He's a decent hardworking target man. I never even insinuated he 'hasn't brought anything to the team'. He's a quality player to have in our squad. - Also we CAN ford those wages (our bill is HIGHER than Chelseas) - we just spread it round. The money is there though but that's a whole different conversation and seems completely off topic to me. I personally just feel Wellbeck is the better option for the Club. Because unlike Giroud he has 'World Class' potential. (IMO) He's young, a great athlete and seems to have a determined attitude. He might never get there, but he needs games in order to. As an attacking side this is what we most lack. I have no doubt if we had an Ibra/Cavani/Lewandowski/Suarez upfront we could win the league. If we're not going to buy a World Class centreforward forward we have to 'make' one.
