(All numbers are for league matches only, unless otherwise noted or common sense dictates)
192 – Olivier Giroud height in centimeters (according to all sources)
88 – Olivier Giroud weight in kilograms (according to most sources)
92 – Olivier Giroud weight in kilograms according to l’Equipe
201 – Peter Crouch height in centimeters
75 – Peter Crouch weight in kilograms
193 – Andy Carroll height in centimeters
79 – Andy Carroll weight in kilograms
3.7 – Olivier Giroud aerial duels won per game*
4.5 – Peter Crouch aerial duels won per game**
10 – Rank of Olivier Giroud among all players in the top five leagues in aerial duels won per game
21 – Goals scored by Olivier Giroud in Ligue un last season*
15 – Rank of Olivier Giroud among all players in the top five leagues in goals scored
6.9 – Shots per game by Christiano Ronaldo**
4.7 – Shots per game by Robin van Persie*
4.5 – Shots per game by Olivier Giroud*
7 – Rank of Olivier Giroud among all players in the top five leagues in shots per game
174 – Total shots by Robin van Persie*
82 – Shots on goal
30 – Goals scored*
47 – Percent of Robin van Persie’s shots that were shots on goal
37 – Percent of Robin van Persie’s shots on goal that he scored
161 – Total shots by Olivier Giroud*
70 – Shots on goal
21 – Goals scored*
43 – Percent of Olivier Giroud’s shots that were shots on goal
30 – Percent of Olivier Giroud’s shots on goal that he scored
What you see in Giroud’s numbers is a player who is an aerially dominant target man. He wins a great percentage of his aerial duels in France at 70%. That’s the same kind of aerial duel percentage that you normally associate with a dominant defender and as you can see is 6% better than Crouch (who is 4″ taller than Giroud). The good news is that Giroud has gotten better at the aerial game as you can see from last season. Chamakh, when he came to Arsenal, had two seasons at 47% aerial duels and continued that percentage at Arsenal. Another wrinkle in the fact that Giroud is so good in the air is that Arsenal often used Robin van Persie on defensive set plays to win headers, sliding Giroud back there could free Robin up to be a counter attacking threat.
The one thing that might frustrate fans (and the player) is that Giroud requires a lot of shots to score goals, in fact, the same number as Chamakh. But that might work in Arsenal’s favor as he is going to get a lot of crosses from the Arsenal fullbacks, he’s going to get a lot of shots off corners and set plays, and if you notice that Robin van Persie averages 2.4 key passes per game (plus he had 9 assists) you could see Robin drop slightly deeper and become more of a distributor as Lord Bergkamp suggested would be his best role.
Regardless, if Arsenal do manage to sign Giroud it signals a pretty big change of direction in terms of attack. And by big I mean a guy who is 6’3″ and weighs 190lbs and who will be real handful in the air for opposition defenses.
7am
Follow Tim on twitter @7amkickoff and on 7amkickoff.com
All data via ESPN and Opta
*Leads his league in this stat
**Leads all of the top five European leagues in this stat
so he is smiliar to Chamakh but is not afraid to shoot and is more clinical?
Also has good hair and does not go do shisha after a loss.
Basically, I like him and then some.
P/s :Sorry chamackh
Please oh please let RVP stay and play with this man.
*with this gorgeous man.
You’re welcome.
Sounds to me like he’s more of a replacement to RVP rather than a strenghtening exercise by AW.
Would be nice if we got Dembele as well.
and if we managed to re-integrate Denilson and Bendtner again, it’d be perfect!
A nice strong center forward, lovely stuff….
wouldnt we be much better off buying an attacking mid someone creative ala gotze or kagawa or even hoilett , this guy has not impressed me from what ive seen of him playinf for france, and were is he going to play ? if rvp stays hes going to be a bench player and we already have strikers for the bench, joel cambell .. it just dont make sense
Can’t you understand that this signing is to take some of the burden off van Persie? He gives us a genuine Plan B AND Plan C; i.e to play instead of vP, or alongside vP in a more 442 formation.
Campbell isn’t ready yet. If he was our second striker next season you’d get all the idiots slating him because he’s not good enough, when in fact it’s just he’s not quite ready. The other 2 are Chamakh and Park..need i say more?
wenger is no way going to change the formation we willl still play 4-3-3 .. so were basically spendning 10 mill for a bench player.. while our rivals are buying players to either push for starting places or commanding starting places .. you see the difference between us and our rivals ?
@jacob
I’m so glad that you can provide such insight to Wenger’s mind and plans. Please, continue.
Even when he signs 2 players and is probobly going for a third, he still gets no credit. Fickle as ever
i would have thought it would be Giroud and RVP up front with podolski just playing behind them as a deep lying centre forward.
Who knows what formation would be preferred by AW… The fact is we now have genuine alternatives up top so we can rotate and mix it up depending on the opposition.
No matter what formation, let’s hope for a goalfest!
I think I love Tom !!!
Podolski will most likely play at left wing like he does for Germany. He can rotate with Gervinho for that position.
How about this for an attack…
RVP
Walcott Giroud Podolski
that way RVP takes the attacking midfield role, could be interesting.
Have Ox, Gervinho and possibly Ryo to substitute up front.
Wilshere and Ramsey to rotate with RVP/Arteta.
Hopefully M’villa or someone else to rotate with Song.
I am still afraid RVP and or Song will go this summer
How many times have you seen Joel Campbell play? So if RVP gets injured and is out for 3 months, your happy with a 19 year old who was on the bench for Lorient a lot last season? He may be a good prospect but should be nowhere near starting in the PL next season.
Didn’t stop Anelka…
… and don’t forget Afobe
Anelka was a one off, Campbell is not ready yet. Plus Afobe? He didn’t make it into the Reading side, so again isn’t ready for first team. I’d personally have RVP, Giroud, Podolski and then Campbell/Abofe as my order for main striker role.
Just an observation that, while “Hidden due to low comment rating” is useful in discouraging trolls, it does not mean that the comment is without any merit. While most here obviously disagree with Jacob, his comment is a legit opinion and not troll bait. I guess that is why I usually read the hidden comments unless they are from one of the usual shit disturbers.
His comment is a stupid opinion that makes no sense hence it has no merit
While I agree that a thumb down makes no distinction between an honest disagreement and a troll, I still love it because there is no space for nonsense. And by non sense we can distinguish two types: the Jacob-like “Wenger sucks because he doesn’t buy what I want to buy and if he buys what I want to buy then he still sucks because he should buy somebody else” and the grammatically challenged “Wengerz no buy Arsinol sucks b/c lol not goood teamz”
If you’re suggesting that perhaps we should differentiate between trolls and those whose opinions we violently disagree with, then you are correct. If I’m making a comment just to wind you up then said comment should be buried. If I make a statement with honest intent, then even if you think I’m the biggest idiot to ever come down the pike, it should be allowed to stand–just another statement in the free marketplace of ideas.
Put in cruder terms–opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one, and everyone thinks theirs is the only one that doesn’t stink.
Great signing. Trying my fucking hardest not to have high expectations, but I’m excited to see him play for us.
Impressive stats thatnks 7am, hope he replicates them for Arsenal. However i can’t realistically see him play with RVP. I think he’ll be the plan B option that would certainly help Arsenal’s attacking threat as a whole.
His career is on the up and up. So excited for next season…
The proverbial brick shithouse and the looks of a movie star.
This summer is going well so far, in my opinion. As a team we create a lot of chances, so an increase in bodies to put them away is a good thing. RVP can stay if he wants and so can can Song to fight for his place with M’Vila. The fringe players look like they’re on their way so I can’t see a lot to complain about at the moment. ………
Great post Tim. This is what i’ve been waiting for. By your description, i feel a bit of uneasiness in the sense that he might have a slight Bendtner feel about him (Not his overconfidence). I mean what most frustating about Bendtner is he waste a lot of chance and has a bad first touch, so is there any chance you could enlightened us? Maybe putting Bendtner best season stats with him? Oh, and Giroud also only scored two headers goal this 2011/2012 season from what i’ve read. So can his 70% winning percentage on winning aerial duels be converted… Read more »
Do note though that how many headers a player scores depends a lot on how the team plays. I don’t know if Montpellier cross the ball a lot or not, but if they don’t play that way it would explain his lack of headed goals.
Agreed. But Arsenal don’t seem to play a lot of crosses or rather Arsenal do play a lot of crosses but no one there to receive it. The latter seems to be the right one and Giroud acquisition might be the answer to that. It come out to whether he decide to use his winning header to link up play or to aim at the goal. This can be know from people who watch him extensively for 90 minutes or part of it in all of his match. Thankfully we have the scout and the manager who do just that… Read more »
Arsenal were playing alot of crosses in especially on the right , but they were shite,
from the left we usually cut in cause gibbs tends to cut back the ball cause theres no one in the penalty box or he held the ball to long
or cause youssi is playing and he is inclined to move inwards cause he’s a central mid player.
or lost in the midfield left cause of rambo.
Watch his goals this season.he is surprisingly good at trappin the ball before he takes a strike.maybe he’s just good at knowing when he has time to bring the ball down and when to hit it straight away rather than just jumping at it,you know? like a good striker(im looking at you Chamakh/Park.
so happy to have Wenger stating Giroud is 90% arsenal as my birthday present 😀 today has been a great day, but now I’m starting to expect a lot from Arsenal next season (which as we all know, can be a potential pitfall) what with all these signings and signs that van the MAN is staying too <3
Taller than Andy Carroll, more muscular than Skeletor Crouch, easily better looking than that big nosed Cunt Ibrahimovic and a top goalscorer in France. I think its safe to say we have the best target man in Europe on our hands. Excited 🙂
i hope he turns out to be as good as that giant nosed cunt ibrahimovic though
Billy Big Nose has never performed on the big stage for me and has never had the guts to play in the PL and has hidden in Italy when deemed to be crap. He has yellow in his DNA !!!
We have the french love machine that is Girohips and hopefully Mvanilla ice ice baby.
Somebody send an oiled nun to my room it is going to be a long night
just because he’s hiding doesn’t mean he’s bad, he has disgusting amounts of skill for how huge he is and he scores butt tons of goals for milan, but serie a has been on a decline for a while, still, i would like giroud to become a player like him
Thanks to the Bill James of football! Some very interesting stuff to mull over, and it looks like that once Giroud gets used to the English game, we have a very valuable acquisition here.
RVP is going 2 play behind giroud. with wilshere back and m’vila in we can take a shot at the title. but what about wellington da silva does he get a permit for next season? Good player
Well I hope we do sign him after all this. Last Summer all the talk was of signing Mata, and we know how that ended up.
well he is not Mata , for starters he doesn’t have his dad going to media and clubs whoring him
that’s because they’re all busy fighting crime with their psycic abilities
It will be very interesting to see how Arsene will accommodate Giroud if he joins Arsenal. I expect us to continue playing with one striker and that will be Van Persie. Tim, I know you’ve suggested Robin could play a little deeper but I am not so sure. Arsene played Chamakh in front and Van Persie behind a few seasons back with no success and most recently the Dutch did the same with Huntelaar and Van Persie. Anyway, great article. Now that I know Giroud will need quite a few chances to score and don’t expect him to be on… Read more »
Trust me, I am not whining about Arsene making this buy. Kudos to the club for being ambitious in the transfer market but… I too have questions as to where Giroud will fit in. It has been suggested that he will give us a plan B but, as the latest season demonstrates, as long as RVP is healthy we do not go to a plan B. I don’t think it is because Plan B did not exist; it’s just that Plan A was so good and we did not have the luxury of experimenting. I personally think that Chamakh is… Read more »
Come on, get some tatooed men onto the squad.
Oliver giroud: shirtless after matchday.
Lady gooners: dead.
Just remember fellas, Arsene knows.
Let’s not roast the guy before he plays a single game .
bye bye Chamakh and Park
or will they be happy earning 50k plus sitting on the bench?
I’d be!!!!!
great stuff as always.
The only thing I would have liked to see as well is a comparison of Chamack’s last two seasons in France and Giroud’s last two seasons. Maybe even compare that to how Benzema did in the France league. I think all of those three forwards played for the champions of the respective years so it might be a good comparison.
cheers
Well with Giroud, Poldi and hopefully M’Vila on board, I feel really excited going into a season for the first time in god knows how many years! All very encouraging signs at this stage, if we can hold onto the important players we have a good chance of challenging on all fronts.
I had my serious doubts with Arsene last season at times, but he’s putting all those doubts to rest the way things are shaping up.
I think he has the same way of playing as Dzeko great player i expect our attack to be unstoppable with RVP and Poldi and Giroud
“He’s going to get a lot of crosses from Arsenal full-backs”
I find this funny because whenever we’ve actually had a target man on, our winger/full-backs automatically develop some aversion to crossing the ball…
My source at the club tells me that Grant Holt is distraught that our need for a big unit up front has been fulfilled by a better looking, stronger, younger, more efficient, higher goalscoring talent.
But, blimey. So he’s pretty much Carrol’s height but carrying an extra 10kg or so? He’s either going to put some serious hurt on opposing centre backs next season (yay!) or lumber around like some sloth beast spawn of heskey (boo!). let’s all hope it’s the former.
that is of course, assuming he signs for us
This is what I was thinking, and from what I’ve seen he’s no slouch, so I imagine he’s gonna have that burly holdup ability of carroll (+10kg) but also able to finish. Looks like a real poacher of goals in the bits and pieces I’ve watched, as well as being able to put his boot behind it
“he is going to get a lot of crosses from the Arsenal fullbacks”
I’m gonna have to take this assumption with a large pinch of salt. I wonder if 7am kickoff would crunch some stats on number of crosses from open play.
I am fully expecting Arsenal to be raking among the lowest teams.
Tippy-tappy, over-elaborating possession is what best describes our style. Let’s not forget that even when we played Chamakh up front, we didn’t change this attacking style.
All of this would only make sense if Wenger is willing to change a lot of things.
Arsenal were fifth in the League in attempted crosses per game with 24. Litterpool were #1 with 29, Man U #2 with 27, Chelsea and Wolves #3 with 26.
” Wolves #3 with 26.”
That stat’s not an important indicator of form then?
I guess you didn’t really watch any games over the last couple of years. Chamakh was bought purely to take advantage of a style that encouraged fullbacks/wingers to cross the ball in.
And describing Arsenal as over-elaborating shows you definitely haven’t been watching this season either. Fabregas out and Arteta in (combined with Song’s more marauding role and the return of Rosicky) has seen a lot more running with the ball compared to previous seasons.
If Wenger doesn’t change the formation, I think Lewandowski would be much better signing for Arsenal. Especially if RvP leaves
I am happy that he is signing.
However, to moderate the excitement, he was playing in the French league, where, for example, Pires and Nasri came from and struggled initially. And Chamakh and Park came from, who struggled throughout.
So don’t get your hopes up too much at the start, hope that he finds his feet eventually.
Do I even have to argue with counter-examples of instant successes from the French league? Really?
am i really the only one who thinks that this guy’s weight is nowhere near 88kg!!!
sounds like plan B has arrived
@Brian Mendoza why would he change the formation when he has players suited to 4-3-3.. so you think hes going to bench the 4-5 wingers we got just to accomodate the one extra striker .. that seems smart
A 4-3-2 (poldi,rvp)-1 (giroud)is more likely,if giroud is to play alongside rvp and poldi ofcourse. I’m sure wenger has all this planned out.
Anyway whatever the formation, I expect goals aplenty.
If Andy Carrolls 79kgs I’m a China man lol
And what’s wrong with that uh?
Uh?
Chamakh. Park, Gervinho….even back to Wiltord, strikers coming from Ligue 1 to prem doesn’t work. Adebayor doesn’t count as he’s a cunt.
Giroud will score 10 goals max….more than a million a goal. What’s the point? Michael Owen would score that at Arsenal.
Why doesnt Adebayor count?Drogba arrived from ligue 1 to…very stupid and baseless comment
Didn’t we sign Anelka from PSG? He was terrible before he left for Madrid though you’re right. Then there’s Drogba, arguably the least effective striker in the PL for the last 8 years…
Eric Cantona to Leeds? Adebayor does count. Even Djibril Cisse was pretty good before the leg break. Probably many more.
Anyway your comment is ridiculous. What if we had signed Benzema would he have been crap just because he was from Ligue 1 and plays up front?
Didn’t Thierry Henry play in France? Yeah, he had a few unproductive years in Italy, but he is a French produit.
“Adebayor doesn’t count because [if I counted him, my argument is bullshit].”
Don’t forget Wiltord’s contribution when we won the league at Mould Trafford. Or Anelka, who was probably more successful in the EPL than in the other leagues he played in (after a quick Wikipedia check).
The alternatives are: a) to not sign anyone; b) pay over-the-odds for a UK based striker, of which there are none good enough or available; or c) shut up and stop whinging.
Who would you rather have?
So he’s a fat Andy Carroll? 🙁
I kid, I kid. As blogs said in today’s post, adding him to RvP (hopefully), Podolski, Chambo, Walcott and Gerinvho gives us some exciting and different options for our front three.
I really still can’t get excited until I see him in an Arsenal shirt. If it’s not official there still time for things to go wrong and I don’t want to tempt fate.
Would be nice though.
Oh, Giroud run, run!
Oh, Giroud run, run!
Giroud run, run, (yeah)
Giroud run, run!
(Repeat to the tune of Da Doo Ron Ron by The Crystals ad nauseum)
I didn’t know Djourou was on loan to Montpellier. He looks different now.
Don’t worry. My coat’s already on.
[…] 来源：[Arseblog News] […]
First post here,i hope it’s not going to receive too many bad votes. I thing Giroud/Poldi are a good signing for us. Finaly some muscle up front!!! We are going to be for a change on the other side of the stick when we’re playing Stoke (or other for what it matters…). Even as a substitute to RVP ,Giroud will make an impact. You can see when he comes in for France at the euro he is eager to play and found his place very quickly in the side. Plus he’s Kos best mate so they will keep each other… Read more »
I have a lot of confidence with Gervinho. No, he didn’t score that many goals and the African cup fucked his form, but looking over old games from the season it’s quite interesting to see just how many defenders in the PL simply couldn’t deal with him running at them. Added to that, he tracks back, has a positive temperament even when things aren’t going his way and is physically a bit of a beast.
If he by some magic gets his final ball/finishing up to scratch, he’ll be devastating.
You bring up a good point – in all this talk of Podolskis, Girouds and M’vilas, Gervinho has sunk into the background.
For playing in a very different position, his first season was not completely unlike Koscielny’s. Showed promise and ability, but couldn’t nail down the basics of the role.
I think Gervinho is going to surprise some people. All he needs is a good pre season and a good start to give him confidence and I think he’ll play well.
I said this time last year that Robin would be best played as a second striker as his passing ability is among the best in Europe. In fact, I said he’d be wasted if we didn’t sign someone like Falcao (who we were linked with at the time). Clearly I was wrong as he was quite decent as the main man I think we’ll all agree. But one stat stands out from there – key passes. His stat is higher than any other genuine striker in Europe. Which makes me think he’d be even more deadly with someone to get… Read more »
He looks like the perfect mix between Dean, from Supernatural (Jensen Ackles) and Shawn from Psych (James Roday).
firstly, i love this site the comment section is hilarious
and i will love to see giroud in an arsenal shirt
and i pray rvp stays!!!!!
For so many seasons we’ve consistantly seen when arsenal run out of ideas they pass from.side to side and then finally cross into the box with no target man. ( I even saw this when eduardo/arshavin has played up front for us)
So I for one would welcome a player with chamakhs Ariel ability but who can also use his feet too. And SHOOT!
Wow at Giroud’s weight. I wish I could accelerate as fast as him. Well of course I ruined both my knees and my right ankle but that’s for another day. He looks to have good acceleration for a big man and seems to have good technique as well. Just another giroud vs chamakh comparison. Giroud besides heading well can hold up play and has good distribution, chamakh doesn’t really hold up play that much and for a “target man” he is very slow to get into the box. Giroud looks hungry for the ball.
a good old fashioned centre forward, will hold the ball up for the rest of the forwards to profit, and bang in a couple for good measure, great signing 🙂
the futures bright, its red and white, COME ON ARSENAL!!!!!
when it happens 😉
A lot of mental analysis going on here. Basically, without RVP we have Chamakh and Park. Chamakh didn’t come good, as Wenger and everyone hoped, and Park (backup) didn’t come good at all. So, we obviously need someone better than Chamakh, and a new backup. This is intended to be both of these things; and with Podolski as well (who can play as a winger), Wenger is bolstering our attacking options for next season. I feel as well, because of the uncertainty around Van Persie, Wenger is making purchases that will sort us out whether the Dutchman stays or goes.… Read more »
[…] as Olivier Giroud stood around looking tall and musclary for the cameras. As I wrote in my By The Numbers column on Arseblog News, Giroud is a somewhat less efficient striker than Robin van […]