Olivier Giroud - Another Alan Smith or "Le Chapman"?

[A dallying Gus Caesar]

When I started this thread a while back, I honestly thought that there may be a link between these two. After six months I do still see a lot of comparisons in the start of their Arsenal careers.

Recently, many people have been getting on Giroud's back. Maybe fair enough, he has not being setting things on fire. All I want to re-iterate is that Alan Smith's first season at the club was very average, and that is being kind. BUT Smudger turned out to do very well for us. I do not think people should give up on Giroud so early on in his time at our club. I see a player that has potential. It is only his first season and there is little that he can do about that.

Fingers crossed I still think he can make it.

He's not going to get much better than he already is. I genuinely like the guy and want him to do well, but he's never going to be one that will get the match winning goal or create a chance out of nothing to win us the game. Instead he will perform well when the team is firing like last night and he will grab goals in games we dominate. In games that we need the striker to make a difference? Not going to happen. Expecting anything else from him would be foolish.

Hi

I can honestly say that everything you've written above is exactly what I would have written about Alan Smith in January 1988.

[Justinsaid]

I see potential in Giroud, I went out to Montpellier and their fans spoke of him as God (in fairness his goals had fired them to their first ever league title), but after to speaking to them a little further they said he took a while to get going and a lot of fans were unsure about him during his first season, but then once he was comfortable in the team his confidence grew and he was amazing in his second season.

[clockender1]

13 goals and 9 assists in all comps - not bad for a first half season.
And I think he's 26 not 27.

In my mind we were always previously shitting it that we were overeliant on rvp. Aw did good by buying pod and olly.

[Top Londoner]

Was it Steve0 who offered a decent bet that Giroud wouldn't score 20 goals next season? Almost worth a speculative monkey imo?

Heh, fuck off. I am daft, not stupid.

[DB10GOONER]

Was it Steve0 who offered a decent bet that Giroud wouldn't score 20 goals next season? Almost worth a speculative monkey imo?

Heh, fuck off. I am daft, not stupid.

I reckon he'll hit 15+ PL goals this season (if given enough games) which is an excellent return for a striker in his first PL season, new team, new "system", new country, shit manager, harder league etc etc. And he may well hit 20+ next season, who knows.

I think the point is though he deserves two seasons to see if he can do it. Writing him off after half a season (and in some particularly retarded cases after a couple of games!) is fucking ludicrous tbh.

Many strikers struggle to settle in their first year or two. Probably more than any other position confidence is vital, their state of mind is critical. Look at Torres and Carroll. Both huge money signings and Carroll is a piss poor return on investment and Torres clocks in about the same as Giroud this season, but for a whole lot more money. Carroll cost £35m and has scored 1 goal in 12 games for the Mousers and Wham. Torres cost £50m and has scored 15 goals in 37 games. Giroud cost £9.5m and has scored 13 in 32.

I’m quite happy to give him 2 seasons before judging him. It’s already very obvious that he is light years ahead of Chamakh and Forehead as a striker. But does that mean he will ultimately be good enough for The Arsenal? Remains to be seen really. He may never (most likely) be a VanJudas level player, but then in the real world of actually scoring goals in games on a regular basis season after season VanJudas wasn’t a VanJudas level player for 7 of the 8 years he was with us!

[gunner_ace]

Was it Steve0 who offered a decent bet that Giroud wouldn't score 20 goals next season? Almost worth a speculative monkey imo?

Heh, fuck off. I am daft, not stupid.

I reckon he'll hit 15+ PL goals this season (if given enough games) which is an excellent return for a striker in his first PL season, new team, new "system", new country, shit manager, harder league etc etc. And he may well hit 20+ next season, who knows.

I think the point is though he deserves two seasons to see if he can do it. Writing him off after half a season (and in some particularly retarded cases after a couple of games!) is fucking ludicrous tbh.

Many strikers struggle to settle in their first year or two. Probably more than any other position confidence is vital, their state of mind is critical. Look at Torres and Carroll. Both huge money signings and Carroll is a piss poor return on investment and Torres clocks in about the same as Giroud this season, but for a whole lot more money. Carroll cost £35m and has scored 1 goal in 12 games for the Mousers and Wham. Torres cost £50m and has scored 15 goals in 37 games. Giroud cost £9.5m and has scored 13 in 32.

I’m quite happy to give him 2 seasons before judging him. It’s already very obvious that he is light years ahead of Chamakh and Forehead as a striker. But does that mean he will ultimately be good enough for The Arsenal? Remains to be seen really. He may never (most likely) be a VanJudas level player, but then in the real world of actually scoring goals in games on a regular basis season after season VanJudas wasn’t a VanJudas level player for 7 of the 8 years he was with us!

This post x 100000000. Why are people so quick to get on players backs nowadays? What exactly has he done so wrong to piss people off. Sometimes I think by mere association to the forehead he gets this bad press. Ok he hasn’t scored against the big boys yet, but he’s still chipped in with some valuable goals this season and like someone said looks like he’ll finish the season in the 15-20 mark quite comfortably.
One last thing mentioning about Giroud, is that the lad has a spectacular 1st touch. That delightful lay-off for Jack against Swansea in the cup replay, the deftness of the ball he flicked to Plod before he passed to santi against the whammers, the 2 goals he took himself in that game too. The lad clearly has a good eye for where the goal is and seems to have great awareness of the players around him in relation to it.

No player will ever be RVP (especially in their first season) so I cant understand why people on this forum are getting uppity about the decent return we’ve had so far.

[1989]

I reckon he'll smash it next season..................and get sold on to the Barcawhores or Man Shitty.

[supergeorgegraham]

He only scores against the weaker teams. He has improved but has to perform on the big stage like against Bayern Munich for example.

[DB10GOONER]

He only scores against the weaker teams. He has improved but has to perform on the big stage like against Bayern Munich for example.

Accepted. Absolutely. But in his first season I'd rather have him scoring against the weaker teams than against no one at all (Chamakh, Forehead)! Everyone has to get their feet somewhere. Very few strikers in particular hit the ground running in the PL.

I also remember Henry being slated because he only ever seemed to score "down south" and particularly at Highbury. Always thought it was a harsh generalisation but there was a ring of truth about it I suppose. He was also slated for not delivering on the big occasions like finals.

Not comparing Giroud to Henry for a moment, but to say he only scores against the weaker teams is (whilst factually true) a tad harsh in his first season. If he keeps scoring against the weaker teams then his confidence may build and he may then start scoring against the better teams too. Nothing guaranteed, but we simply cannot write him off after half a season.

As an aside; I remember the more fickle elements of the press and our fans talking about "wasted money" because Bergkamp took 6 games or whatever to net his first. I remember thinking "are people really THIS retarded?"

[goonersid]

Well I still think he's shite

[DB10GOONER]

Well I still think he's shite

Ah fuck it - alright, he's shite!



But we still have to give him a couple seasons....

[goonersid]

Well I still think he's shite

Ah fuck it - alright, he's shite!



But we still have to give him a couple seasons....

Obviously
Plus an improved 5 year contract to fend off interest from our mid table rivals

[LDB]

Torres clocks in about the same as Giroud this season, but for a whole lot more money.

And who would you rather have providing you with chances? Hazard, Mata, Oscar & co or our rabble?

[DB10GOONER]

Torres clocks in about the same as Giroud this season, but for a whole lot more money.

And who would you rather have providing you with chances? Hazard, Mata, Oscar & co or our rabble?

Good point too.

Wenger trying to wedge players into his failed "system" of Barca-Lite tippy tappy drives me nuts. He has a bloke that can win the ball in the air (Giroud) and another bloke that is a natural finisher (Podolski) and instead of playing them up front together in a 4-4-2 he insists in playing Giroud up front alone with no one to lay the ball off to and Podolski as a fucking winger...

One of Giroud's obvious strengths is in the air and we have no one (apart from the non-playing Jenko and a misplaced Podolski and he's usually crowded out by one of our backs) that can cross decent balls into the box. Giroud's doing ok given the shit manager he is working under. Utilise him in the right system and who knows what he might deliver.

[SteveO 35]

I'll let everyone have their Giroud love in for now and will revisit this page with interest after the two legs against Bayern, the away game at the Lane and the home game against ManUre