18 Mar 2014 01:39:02
I attended Sundays game. Let me just say first off the fans were amazing. Atmosphere was class. Sung from the first minute and 10 minutes after the whistle. Massive 3 points. I'm here to talk about giroud. I have never seen such a poor individual performance ever. He was shocking. I can recall only 2 times he held the ball up. Ever other time vertongen or Kabul won the header or tackle, he was pathetic. It was like playing with 10 men. Looked disinterested, couldn't be bothered, didn't care if we won or lost aslong as he's getting his wage packet, was a disgrace to arsenal football club. If he has that attitude and his wife apparently wants to go back to France then sell him. Thankfully we had other heroes on that pitch that cared and knew the importance of the rivalry and magnitud of the game. If he has that same demena for the rest of the season. Sell him and buy 1 world class striker and another quality back up.

1.) 18 Mar 2014
Giroud is easily replaceable. He lacks pace and has scored the minimum amount an Arsenal striker should score with the service provided. He is no Henry, RVP or Ian Wright.

{Ed007's Note - Or Charlie Nicholas!}

2.) 18 Mar 2014
Honestly, I am not Giroud's biggest fan. He can go missing sometimes, as he did on Sunday (although he did some good defensive work before the goal), he lacks the pace and skill to take on defenders, and he seems to get a bit panicky at times.

BUT, I must say that I get a bit annoyed when rather than get behind our team we criticise players who aren't even doing that badly.

Giroud is in his 2nd season and has 17 goals in 38 games. Robbie you mentioned our top strikers of the last 20 years above, and you're absolutely right that Giroud is not at that level. But consider that Henry got 22 in 53 in his 2nd season - that's 5 more than Giroud this season in 16 more games. it's quite likely that Giroud will hit 22 goals this season in less than 53 games. RVP's goals p/game ratio was worse than Giroud's this season for his first FIVE seasons.

I know scoring goals isn't everything, but it does us big favours when we have so much midfield quality in our team.

Giroud can be frustrating but remember all the other players that Wenger stuck with. And a lot of them were doing much worse than Giroud is now. The problem is we need another striker to compete/play with Giroud - someone who has pace, technique and can take on defenders (Suarez wouldn't be too bad. ) In terms of his being 'replaceable' or having the wrong 'demeanour', I just think that's nonsense. He usually works very hard and knows the team well. I think if he was straight-out replaced we'd be unpleasantly surprised at how hard a new striker (unless they were of the £50m+ category) would find it to gel the way Giroud does.

As I say, I'm under no illusion that he's world class. But honestly all this talk of him being the worst leading man we've had in years and not good enough to play for the club has no basis in fact. He adds a lot. We just need one more quality striker in place of Bendtner.

3.) 18 Mar 2014
Oleg - I don't think Giroud is a poor player, he is adequate, but doesn't create anything himself, which other players have. I can't say I will be sad to see him go, if a suitable replacement is signed. I would like to see us sign Balotelli & Draxler.

4.) 18 Mar 2014
Agree totally Oleg

5.) 18 Mar 2014
I think with regards the Giroud situation sometimes people miss the point a bit.

For me, the striker is THE most important position on the pitch - after all, you don't win any games without scoring. He should be skillful and capable of coming up with something out of nothing. Liverpool have Suarez, City have Aguero, Barca have Messi, the list goes on. (with the exception of Bayern)

The point is that, if anything, the striker should carry his team, not the other way around. I feel Giroud does get carried along by the other quality players around him. I can almost see him thinking 'I can't believe my luck here, I'm on 70k a week and playing with Ozil and Cazorla! This is great!'

Obviously we want to score and win games as a team, and not rely on just one brilliant striker to carry us, but Giroud is just not good enough to be starting for a top, top Premier League club.

6.) 18 Mar 2014
Giroud is quite simply not of the required standard of any team that would want to win trophies on a regular basis. Put him up for sale at 20mil and no top 4 prem, la liga, bundesligue, french or even italian teams would touch him. Playing for us any player should score goals it is his overall ability that is lacking. he's not accurate in the air he has no right foot, no pace, no dribbling ability and does not get the blood flowing when you watch him. I would be happy for him to be our third or fourth choice striker or a plan b option but that's it.

7.) 18 Mar 2014
RVP was at Arsenal 7 years. He averaged 17 goals per season for 6 of those seasons. It was only in his least season he scored a shedload of goals.