Olivier Giroud, remember him? Of course you do…
Well there’s good news. He and his lovely abs, and his lovely hair, and his Gallic nose, and his propensity to wave his finger in the air like it’s on fire when he gets a little kick…well they’re all back in first team training.
After 82 days on the sidelines with a broken foot the French international was spotted at London Colney dribbling past those static outdoor mannequin things, playing ‘porc dans le milieu’ with Mathieu Flamini and Arsene Wenger, pouting and running his fingers through his locks.
It remains to be seen whether the 28-year-old is in contention for Arsenal’s next game against Manchester United on 22 November, but he should at least be up to speed by December when the games come thicker than Daniel O’Reilly and faster than an Abou Diaby injury recurrence.
Bonjour Olivier, we’ve been expecting.
Oliver’s Flicks or Welbeck’s Pace
Why not both? 4-4-2 with Giroud and Welbeck upfront and Sanchez and Walcott/Chamberlain on either side.
and a bit of resolutely solid defending at the back..can still turn the season around. With a stroke of luck & chelsea dropping half a dozen points we are only 4-6 points behind leaders on Jan 2nd 2015…
well i am dreamer..kill me if thats a crime.
I feel exactly the same way. We just need to not drop anymore points in the coming month. ManU game is very very big.
Sanchez has to play Up top with one of dem
Exactly. And we want Ozil in the middle. Can we play 4-1-3-2?
We can but we need a faster DM for that formation to work. They will also have to cover a lot of ground as you are suddenly taking a player away from that area.
Liverpool almost won the league last term with a “Sure we might let in a bunch of goals, but we’ll just score even more” attitude. Our approach right now is half-arsed, half-baked. Whatever formation we play, our defence is problematic due to injuries to Debuchy & Koscielny. Due to worries about the defence, our attacking players start games playing TIMIDLY, only for their ‘attacking instincts’ to literally explode after about 70 minutes and bomb forward regardless of the circumstances. Until Debuchy & Kos return, how about an ALL GUNS BLAZING formation which couldn’t give a toss about conceding once or… Read more »
My head hurts when I see that…
Giroud is not exactly the bomb forward type. He’s more of the saunter forward, flick the ball on, get tackled, spend 15 minutes on the ground ruing the referee’s decision not to give a freekick, the opposition counter attacks and runs past BFG because Ramsey and Ox are on the half way line type. That is what your formation does. For me, it has to be: Szcezny Monreal BFG Chambers Gibbs Arteta Ox Walcott Rosicky Sanchez Welbeck Ox is hard working and he needs to be given a sitting back protecting the back type role. He can help out the… Read more »
Right attitude. And with all of them pestering the opponents Sanchez style as soon as we lose the ball. The only thing we lack is confidence. Make Sanchez captain and killemall!
If we are moving Sanchez to the wings, then I hope Poldi is given the chance at the 2nd striker role as the most clinical finisher in the squad. Giroud and Welbeck can fight for the other spot and get a breather as well!
Also in the 4 4 2, Walcott or Sanchez can play the second striker along side either Giroud or Welbeck.
Thanks for the lovely proposition. It’s been a while since I thought about the squad with an enticing perspectieve.
I think Welbeck is actually a much better passer than Giroud, while the assists may not be as spectacular.
Unfortunately, it’s just not a strategy that’s working at the moment. Giroud could act as a taller, less technically skilled version of Bergkamp and bring others into the game through sheer physicality.
Welbeck plays it much safer than Giroud with his passing. That’s the main difference.
HFB xx
this is good. with the competition against Welbeck he would have to up his game.
Guys I feel like we gonna lose the next game next one after that and after that,like fucking burnley!!!!!!!!!!!!
hehe
Excellent news! We might score from a set piece this season.
This is fucking good news.
We need someone who can hold the ball up while the cavalry arrive (ie. Welbeck, Walcott and Sanchez) to slip the ball into the goal.
I think people also underestimate his use when we are defending our own corners. Excited to have him back, competition can only be better for the squad!
A lot of our ‘supporters’ underestimate him as a player as they can’t really understand the ‘playing as a team’ concept. When you have a team of smaller No.10s who are comfortable with the ball and quick footed, you want them running through and drawing the opposition towards them to make space for others and the best way to get that going is a 1-2 with a ‘back to goal’ CF. They’d rather have a guy that contributes nothing except a few more goals and then they can whinge that we have small players.
Well this solves our defensive problems..oh wait.
It certainly helps at set pieces. It’s no surprise that we’ve struggled at set pieces while he’s been injured.
Genuinely surprised there are no ‘good, he can play CB’ posts.
Be nice to have him back, esepcially as we seem to be not doing so well with Plan A at the moment.
Pop him, Welbeck and Sanogo up front and just Allardyce it for the last 10 minutes of games.
Is Dick Swiveller really Arsene? Who else thinks Sonogo should even be at the club at the moment. He needs to go on loan and learn to score goals, look what it’s doing for Afobe.
If you want to chuck balls into the box against an 11 man defence then I’d rather have Sanogo in there than Santi.
For some reason this news made me really, really happy
Me too, if anything else because now we can have this moment replayed in red: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht09YUgHerM
And no, I’m not being sarcastic. It’s actually a bit amusing although I’m sure Debuchy got weeks of hate mail from just about every woman in France out of jealousy.
Well, he does defend set pieces better than pretty much anyone else on the team. For that, if nothing else, good to have him back.
That really sums up our defence, desperately needing a tall physical striker to be our best defender on set pieces.
We had Big Phil but the home crowd whingers made his life hell. Most physically big players are slow on the turn and easily outpaced. We got BFG who suffers these problems but has generally good positioning and usually reads the game well (less so this season). We need someone that got Kozzers speed and a little bigger would be beneficial. Another big CB would make every forward lick their lips at the thought of ‘New Big CB’ and BFG standing statue like as they run through.
I’d add that any one that’s too physical would leave us with 10 men too often as most PL refs are definitely (100%) bias against us. If Probert or Atkinson saw Matic and Cahill walking round Selfridges wearing our kit (assume after having lost a bet) they’d both leave with red cards…. force of habit for the PGMOL Ref!
We actually do ok on set pieces. Where we’re more likely to concede headers is from open play.
Great news! We can do with more options upfront. He came in at half time and got us an unlikely point at Goodison Park. A much underrated player if you ask me.
His problem last season was being the only outlet and thus being played into the ground. With the help and competition around him (Sanchez, Welbeck and Walcott), we will see a more determined Giroud.
Also he really could have done with some protection from the refs last season. The number of times he got a knee full in the back and got nothing from the ref was embarrassing.
Na na na na! We’ve been overdue for some good news.
in Shad we trust
I missed Giroud he brings so much more to the game…remember his one touch passes with Wilshere against Norwich.
Just like a new signing
I wonder how one can get a groin injury from trying to get off the hospital bed. 🙁
Ask RVPrick.
People forget what a good job Girould did last season when again we had so many injuries playing the lone striker role is no mean feat, and as mentioned he is good at set pieces seems more in defense than attack, 4 4 2
Giroud with Sanchez Welbeck left Theo right Ozil in the middle with Ramsey as DM thats a great attacking force, Theo last season improved on his defensive role for the RB and Welbeck would help the LB
4-3-3… Szczesny.. Monreal (RB), Gibbs (LB), Per (CB) and Chambers (CB)… Ox (LW), Theo (RW), Jack (CM)… Giroud (CF), Alexis (LF), Danny (RF)… We don’t have a decent DMF and recently we have gone missing in the middle of the park so why force the issue by playing someone who does half the job… instead, Stop pushing the full backs forward they must hold their positions at the back…. We must have a line of 4 defenders throughout the entire game there is no reason for the full backs to push forward when we have 6 attacking players in this… Read more »
Why not put Podolski, Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla on defence while you’re at it?
For the ManU game I still prefer a 4-2-3-1 formation. Think the back 4 at this time should be Bellerin at RB – he’s quicker than Chamberlain and can handle the speed of opposing outside forwards better,Chamberlain at LCB where he seems much more comfortable and consistant, the BFG at the RCB position where he can help stabilize Bellerin, and Gibbs at LB. I’d like to see Rosicky and Arteta at DM to have a more defensive focus. Ox at RW, Alexis at LW, and Ramsey at the 10 with Welbeck up front. I know many will think I am… Read more »
Are you by any chance mixing up the names of Chambers and Chamberlain (Ox)? Otherwise your comment doesn’t make much sense…
Wow, that was amazing.
So we clone our Ox, play him in defense and going forward. Replace one of our Oxen, but end up making a total of 4 substitutions.
Are you from the future? (Did they clone Sepp too?)
If you are, please leave me a copy of Grays Sports Almanac
all this Giroud or Welbeck talk keeps me thinking how the boss has lost his edge a bit and how it has rubbed onto our thinking as fans. In our heads it’s either this or that not how we could utilise the whole squad. When we were linked with that Javier manquilo kid almost everybody went nuts with “what happens to Jenko now ” nobody saw this shortage numberwise coming. Well, Cahambers came in and everybody was excited, me as well, of course being English helped for most as well. Had we loaned Jenko and brought it in Joe foreigner… Read more »
Perfect time to swap him with nacho
Comment: GOOD NEWS! I HOPE TO SEE A 4-4-2 FORMATION WITH SANCHEZ/OX/POLDI ON THE LEFT, WALCOTT/OX ON THE RIGHT, GIROUD/WELBECK IN THE MIDDLE WITH CARZOLA & OZIL (WHEN HE RETURNS) IN THE HOLE (BERGKAMP ROLE), WHILE ARTETA//FLAMINI & RAMSEY/WILSHERE COMPLETES THE MIDFIELD QUARTET. I ALSO HOPE WENGER WOULD SEE REASON IN PAIRING CHAMBERS WITH THE BFG IN CD WITH BELLERIN AT RB WHILE WE AWAIT THE RETURN OF KOS-THE-BOSS AND DEBUCHY RESPECTIVELY.
DO YOU?! WELL THAT’S GOOD! ALSO BERGKAMP DIDN’T PLAY IN THE HOLE ORIGINALLY , HE PLAYED JUST BEHIND THE MAIN STRIKER TO LINK THE ATK AND MF TOGETHER BUT ALSO GIVE THE CENTRE BACKS SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT!
I REALLY THINK YOU SHOULD CHECK YOUR CAPS LOCK!!
No wayyyyyy has Mark Hughes got a sense of humour 😀
26 goals all competitions last season
Just saying.
26 goals on 50+ games. With an average of 11 chances for every goal he scored.
A goal or an assist in about 2 out of every 3 games since he’s joined the club. Those are good statistics. Not Luis Suarez statistics, but very solid for a PL striker. People look only at his goals and ignore the assists because he’s a striker, but that’s stupid. A striker who nets you 15 goals and 10 assists is better than a striker who scores you 18 goals and 1 assist.
16 in 36 matches does not win you the league. Lets stop making excuses, he’s decent; not “very solid”
Player Club Goals
Luis Suárez Liverpool 31
Daniel Sturridge Liverpool 21
Yaya Touré Manchester City 20
Wayne Rooney Manchester United 17
Wilfried Bony Swansea City 17
Sergio Agüero Manchester City 17
Edin Džeko Manchester City 16
Olivier Giroud Arsenal 16
Jay Rodriguez Southampton 15
Romelu Lukaku Everton 15
Scoring chart last season. As the lone striker, he scored one less than Aguero who was actually part of a front two and Man City won the league. So you see, you’re main striker doesn’t have to score past 20 to win the league.
Aguero scored 17 in 23 matches. Thats 13 games less than giroud.
He’s also not our penalty taker which can make a big difference to a strikers tally.
Are you trying to say he’s better than aguero?
It’s being pointed out to you that;
1) Winning the league isn’t about 1 player, it’s about how the team plays.
2) HFB is a much better player than he’s given credit for.
If you really think anyone’s saying that he’s better than Kun, then you’re either a troll or plain dumb.
1. Ever heard of a player “making a difference”?? like lets say emmm Van rapist? Would we have gotten a top 4 in his last season without his goals?? Would man u have won the league without his goals?? Would madrid have won the ucl without cr7’s goals?? These are players who if they get injured, it clearly shows. Giroud absence has not affected the team. We have defensive problems, not goal scoring ones. 2. “HFB” is average(like i said earlier on, “decent, but not solid”)..end of story. His stats show it. He isn’t doing anything special that our past… Read more »
The goals Van Rapist set up for others are Just as important as the goals he scored. It’s a team game! Same with the others you mention. No argument from anyone about our defensive problems but HFB and DW are both useful defenders from corners/free kicks, and if we can (as a team) score more than we concede then we should win the game. Our results without HFB aren’t great, I’m not prepared to put the work in to do a comparison. He’s above average for the PL but not a world beater. Good team player but still misses that… Read more »
22 goals actually.
With Giroud, Welbz, Alexis and Walcott we have great striking options in a 4-4-2 formation. Could go all pace with two of theo/alexis/welbz, pace and power in Giroud + alexis/theo or power and athleticism in Giroud + alexis/wlebz.
Also feel a great spell from December to mid January will see us back in the top 3 of the league table. I figure that should be around the time we click into form since we’ve been so shite lately
Giroud for CB !!
Hfb
I had a dream last night that we signed Girouds brother. No one knew about him but Arsene knew about him and he was Identical to Olivier but with the hair of Emmanuel Petit. to cut a long story short if you want lovely Arsenal related dreams, knock back a few bottles of becks and pop two codeine and you’re away.
I hope we ship him away in the January window and get a few £ mil for him. He is not good enough for arsenal, we’d be better off with a world class striker and welbeck as backup.’
Yawn
Stick to your PlayStation.
To be fair Giroud is good on FIFA and not in reality so that statement doesn’t contain much relevance except from the name ‘PS’ 😉 What I am saying is that there is loads of strikers out there who could do a better job for us, if we want to compete with the best we need to have ‘top-quality’ players on most positions. In fifa you can get away with a average team, in reality you cannot, if you wish to compete at the top.. Don’t get me wrong, Giroud is not a bad player it is just that he… Read more »
Can we ship you away for a few quid?
I think any other club would want too much money to take a ‘supporter’ like him!
I think it’s pretty funny how people’s opinion about him has changed. There was lots of hate twards him in the end of last season and in the summer on these forums and even the poll on arsenal.com about who should be our main striker was landslid by Welbeck. While Giroud was out injured they made a new poll about the same thing and now the HFB is leading it and the attitude twards him has changed on here as well.
Maybe they’re finally seeing what he brings to the team.
Or they could just be fickle twats!
Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby could be sidelined for three months after suffering a serious hamstring injury
no comment
Where is this story coming from?
On another thread someone said this has been dis-credited.
I think it said it came from Liar.com …..Sorry Goal.com
Wenger can try him behind Wellbeck. Giroud will create more chances and be more of threat than Carzola is right now. He is not a typical playmaker but may thrive as a second striker positioned behind.
I would think he’d be better as the target man with Welbeck running off him, not the other way around.
Looking forward to Giroud coming back into the squad as he is a top player with his back to goal , brings others into the game brilliantly , especially Ramsey and he defends setpieces excellently. He is , of course only marginally quicker than me , which is saying something and occasionally giving the impression of not being able to hit a cows arse with a banjo from two paces so I fully understand why some of us want him gone. On a slightly different note ,reading posts that Ozil should take the “Bergkamp” role and play off the main… Read more »
Ozil has always played as a no 10 for his previous clubs. If he’s good enough to play that position at madrid, then no reason why he can’t do it for us.
Can he play in defence?
Sure he can do a job at CB.
The possibilities with Giroud-Alexis-Walcott-Ozil-Ox-Cazorla as an attacking front has so much potential.
A good run of games in the cups and league when they come thick and fast after the new year could do wonders for this squad. Hopefully all of the tinkering Wenger’s done in Aug-Nov will bear fruit.
Btw diaby is out for another three months…
btw no he isn’t.
To be honest I haven’t noticed he’s been gone at all. That’s just the honest truth.
Fact. Some people on here are making it seem like he was banging in goals before he got injured. Its ozil and kos that we desperately need back, not Giroud.
If you can’t defend, score more than the opposition.
Fact. some people think the team plays better with him in the squad and in the starting 11 against certain opposition.
No argument about needing kozzer back (Debuchy as well!).
We’ve been doing just fine with alexis and welbeck. We need defensive solidarity, nothing more nothing less. Ox-welbeck-alexis has developed a good understanding. Goals is not our problem; besides giroud doesn’t score that much.
Yes we need defence sorted but that’s a different subject.
This thread is about HFB.
Goals clearly are a problem in as much as we need to score more than we let in. If we can’t sort the defence then at least score the goals.
Lets try both!
Best Formation I can think off with the big G back in action
Big G Welbeck
Sanchez Carzola Ox Walcott
Arteta
Gibbs Chambers BFG Hector
with OX as the Box to BOX midfielder Carzola in the number 10 position ( free room) but I feel Sanchez is way better there..I dunno but Wenger has his work cut out for him when choosing is first 11. Maybe Welsh Jesus in Arteta’s role or the Ox position when he get his head into the game of keeping it simple. Wilshere…damn Where to put him?
Don’t know if you’ll be able to get away with that 4-1-4-2 formation, unless you’re planning on giving Szczesny a rest.
God. this made me laugh silly. playing without a keeper? Genius! that has to work. dont know about others but I would really want you as the next manager sir….
Wenger will play Giroud at center back with nacho.