By Walter Broeckx
Well finally the word is out. What we have been saying a few months now is official. Giroud has joined Arsenal.
The 1,92m tall French striker and international comes over from the French champion Montpellier.
He was their top scorer in their last campaign that brought them the title after a fierce battle with PSG. So he knows what it’s like to fight against the big money teams. And he knows how to beat them apparently.
So how do I know he will score 14 goals in his first Arsenal season? Well because he always scores 14 goals in his first season at a new club. And then in the next season he goes one step further and scored 24 or 25 goals.
Just look at his stats. When he joined Istres in the 2007/2008 season he scored 14 goals. But then he went to Tours so Istres couldn’t find out how his second season would be.
In Tours he scored 14 goals in his first season. And in the next season he went further and scored 24 goals. I think he was chosen best player in the Ligue 2 that year if my memory is correct.
After Tours he went to Montpellier in the season 2010/2011 and guess what he scored 14 goals in his first season. And in his second season he went on to score 25 goals and won the title with them.
So if he keeps this up he will score 14 league goals this season in his adaptation year. Because that is what it will be. He will have to adapt to the PL.
We must keep this in mind because others like Pires also had a difficult start at Arsenal at first. The first year has also been difficult at times for Gervinho (and certainly after the African nations cup defeat) but at the end I thought he was coming good again. It will be a big year for Gervinho. Will he have made the step up or not? We will see this season.
For Olivier Giroud we will have to see how his adaptation will work out. Let us not judge too soon on him. Chamakh came in as a hurricane at first but couldn’t keep it up and totally disappeared. So in a way I wouldn’t be that disappointed if Giroud needs a bit of time to settle in.
If I can compare Giroud with another striker I always have to think of Dzeko. One of the luxury bench warmers at Manchester City. He is also tall, he is a good header and a left footer. I really do think they are very similar in the way they are built and the way they play.
Dzeko has had his ups and downs and maybe in another team would have got more time and more goals. But at City with all the strikers they have it is hard to get playing time.
And the same will be maybe the fact at Arsenal. Because if you look at the current strikers we have at our disposal for now we have: Van Persie – Podolski – Giroud – Walcott – Oxlade-Chamberlain (all at the Euro’s this summer) – Gervinho (Ivory Coast international). 6 internationals and 2 of them top scorers in their league and 3 of them in their club.
Podolski is one with a great distance strike, Giroud is a strong header and a poacher, Van Persie can do it all, Walcott is as fast as lightning, Oxlade-Chamberlain is just as fast and has more technical ability and Gervinho can be dazzling at times with his runs from the flanks. If only he would start to score this season.
And then we still have players on our books like Chamakh, Bendtner, Arshavin…. I do think there will not be enough room for all of them. And we also have to look at Afobe who is the young gun knocking at the door.
We now have 3 left footed strikers and 3 right footed strikers. And some of them can play on both flanks. Podolski is not slow: nor are Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo. So we will have speed enough in the team in attack.
If Wenger can mix them and make them play together we do have a great attack. Can’t wait for the season to start.
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Indeed Walter..Indeed..can’t wait for the new season to start…
Its not even the end of June and we have signed two very good players. I agree with you – can’t wait for season to start especially if our injured players (Sagna, Wilshere, Diaby) are fit!
You missed Joel Campbell. He is going to be a top talent – Might get loaned though.
Also don’t believe Ox will play as a striker.
Bops,
I also hesitated to put Oxlade-Chamberlain in as a striker. But then again if Wenger does name him as a striker at Al Jazeera…who am I to disagree…
I suppose it depends on whether you count our left and right sided players as strikers. Effectively they are (cutting inside and shooting) but if you say “Arsenal play with three strikers” it makes you think of a narrow 433, where all three strikers are no wider than the edge of the box to start off.
Really, it doesn’t matter so much! For simplicity I’d probably call them inside forwards, but both Podolski and Gervinho are strikers yet play (or surely will play in Podolski’s case) on the flanks. Likewise Theo is a striker by trade.
On paper, Giroud will compete against Van Persie, Chamakh, Bendtner and Campbell for that single strikers berth. Unless we go back to playing two strikers, it seems likely that Giroud’s capture will speed things up with regards to Chamakh and Bendtner’s departures, though it is plausible that Chamakh stays for another season if Campbell doesn’t get a permit or isn’t considered ready.
Allowing for RVP leaving, as regards our other (possible) striker departures: Vela, Bendtner, Park, Chamakh, I agree with PHIL (12.13pm) that it’s plausible that Chamakh stays for another season, if only because the other three simply have NO future with Arsenal.
@ Walter,
So we have Giroud in Red and White now. Whoz next? Guess a seasoned goal keeper who can keep Szczesny on his toes. AND therz no news of Song signing a new contract.
Nope- Giroud, Van Persie, Bendtner and Podolski are strikers, the Ox, Vela, Walcott and Gervinho are wingers.
rosicky, arshavin, chamberlain, ryo, campbell, gervinho, walcott, podolski, vela, van persie, park, bendtner, afobe, chamakh, watt, giroud, wellington, gnabry, ansah, neita, roberts, eisfeld,
There is some awesome “attacking” talent there including 14 current FULL internationals
I still think we will sign M’Villa and that will be our signings done. Which is plenty 3 top players is more than I expected
Well the actual transfer drama is yet to begin!!! Wait for July to begin…I somehow have a feeling that Lord Wenger has something up his sleeve!!! Two quality signings…WOW!
@Byron – agree with you mate…M’Vila or some defensive midfielder of some standing but we need one.
I can’t wait to hear match commentator say “Giroud to Djourou” or other way around 😉
2 more contracts signed and I’m happy. (RvP and Walcott).
@Arsenal 13 I think Songo has contract untill 2015 so his contract is not priority this summer (might be media’s next summers big story like Cesc for few years and RvP this year).
If we were not sure before, this signals the end of Bendtner with us as Giroud brings much of the “physicality” that Bendtner was expected to bring to the them. If he can find a buyer, I am sure Chamakh and Vela will be sold as well. I think in Chamakh’s case, the nail on the coffin might have been the picture of him smoking a pipe with Taarabt after our loss to QPR.
I am beginning to think Arshavin may end up staying with us. After his disastrous outburst at the Euros following Russia’s loss to Greece, I don’t know if there are that many teams keen to buy him. He may be better utilized as a backup to the backups so we can loan Ryo out for another season of development.
I know Park has not impressed but I don’t see him going anywhere either. What I have read, it appears he will have to serve in the Korean military meaning any team that buys him may have him for only a season or two – hard to see any team paying a meaningful transfer fee for someone in that type of scenario.
We would then have Theo, RVP, Poldi, Ox, Giroud, Gervinho as the first six choices for our forward lines, with Arshavin and Park providing more depth/support along with young players like Afobe and Campbell. That first six, as Walter has noted, gives Wenger many possible combinations depending on our opponents and the scoreline.
great news. his mobility for a big dude coupled with his confidence when shooting is better news. cant wait for next season indeed. id be surprised if ricky got any worse or doesnt improve on last yr, so its gonna be nice being able to see game changers on the bench in oli, ox, ricky and santos. plus ramsey if he can push on and jack if fit.
who needs a window?
Will Ryo be joining us next season?
Yeah. AW himself said about Giroud: “He is exceptional in the air.” That means Nic and Chamakh will leave, for sure.
The fact that we have 3 left-footers and 3 right-footers in our attack line now is very interesting. AW always like left-footed attackers and we can easily understand why if we watch RVP. And, as you said, we have very quick strikers/wingers and that means a more direct way of attacking in comparing with the ‘Cesc era’.
I’m still not that crazy about M’Vila, though. I think we have enough ball-collecting midfielders already. And with our super strong attack, we don’t need a DM to help our back four.
And I still hope Park will shine, somehow. Don’t want to see an Asian player in our team turns out to be a complete failure.
Has anybody heard the rumour that we might be experimenting with a 3-5-2 formation next season, van persie probably dropping back into his favourite false 9 position, the two new boys up front, arteta and song mopping up behind, a couple of mobile wing backs, and a defence of koscielny on the right and vermaelen on the left, mertesacker at the sharp point of the inverted christmas tree.
I hasten to add i am not privy to any secrets, but i’d like to see us finish some games next season with 5 strikers on the pitch. so possibly dreaming aloud.
Any thoughts any one, do you you think we could pull it off?
Welcome to the Arse, Olivier!
@Ugandan Goon,
I hadn’t heard any rumours, but I’d found myself wondering about a 3-5-2. We certainly have the players for that system; Santos would probably make a better wing back than a full back, and that would also put a lot of our attacking talent on the pitch at once. I was thinking something like:
Szczesny
Kos Mert Verminator
Sagna Santos
Arteta Song
Walcott RVP Gervinho
Giroud Podolski
That should give us some of the width we were lacking sometimes last year, but having two full on strikers would give more depth as well. Also, having five defenders would offer an extra player to cover the Verminator’s runs forward as one of the wing backs slides in to his place; that would cover one of last year’s big defensive weaknesses. We would also have the benefit of being the only team in the EPL using such a formation, so we’d be a step ahead of everyone else as regards tactics.
And even if Giroud’s coming means that RVP is going, we still have Wilshire, Rosicky, Song, the Ox, and perhaps Arshavin or Diaby that could fill the attacking midfielder role. Of course I hope he stays, but we have options if he doesn’t.
Dratted spacing. I meant for the formation to look more like:
————-Scszney
——-Kos—-Mert–Verminator
Sagna————————Santos
———Arteta—Song
—Walcott—–RVP——Gervinho
——–Giroud—–Podolski
El Gringo, you have too many players. A standard 352 would shape up like
CB CB CB
WB WB
CM CM CM
ST ST
The only width would come from the fullbacks, which I think would make us far too one directional. We’d also be wasting our wide players like Theo and Gervinho, unless you think we could use them as effectively as strikers.
If we used this formation, we’d need five centrebacks, and I can’t see us relying on either Miquel or Bartley as a 5th choice (with 3 CBs they’d be as likely to be called upon as a normal 4th choice CB, so quite a bit), plus we’re unlikely to buy another CB.
All in all, I think it’s pretty unlikely. More likely would be a 4231, with Van persie in the hole, Giroud advanced and Wilshere/Song/Arteta playing the two deep roles.
But really, signing two players isn’t likely to result in a change of system. Podoloski surely fits in nicely on the left, while Giroud will offer depth to the attack as a backup as well as a plan B off the bench, with the ability to also play up top with Robin, should we need goals.
I hope you right Walter, Giroud scores 14 in his first season with us.
And Poldy 14 too, Theo 14 too, Tommy going mad and scores 10, Arteta makes progress and scores 10, Robin at his best scores 35.
If all this number is only in EPL plus a few from another players, we will scores 100+. I think we will win EPL next season!
If Giroud and Poldi can adapt very fast with EPL, we will have the most scary attacker in the league (maybe in Europe or world).
Poldi – RVP – Giroud – Theo
Can we play 4-2-4 please?
The 2 player in the middle is like Petit and Vieira in the past, they can defend, they can distribute.
Can’t wait Arsenal’s 4-2-4 formation meet Big Sam 8-0-2 formation!
@Phil–You’d think I’d be able to count now, wouldn’t you! Don’t know what I was thinking there!
Too many strikers, hope we’re not making adjustments for RVP potential departure.
Can’t wait for first game of season!
It happens to the best of us, though I think 13 players is fair enough when Mike Dean is reffing.
New post up on the sheer number of strikers in our squad. I started writing a comment and it turned into an article!
Wooby, what was Arshavin’s disastrous outburst? Doesn’t sound like him. I read what he said in the post match interview on his web site and it all sounded very sensible.
@El Gringo,
Thanks for the reply, it is exciting isn’t it? the thought of a dynamic striking force, i don’t know if you paid attention to how the french national team used benzema and nasri. they were enot pinned to their defender but extremely mobile and building their attacks by outmaneuvering what ever defender they chose to pick on.
The thought of hangeland et al chasing their man all over the pitch or standing around like lemons protecting the D while the attack builds on the wing and a couple of fast passes undo them makes me wish i could get into the prof’s head