He may have scored five goals in six games for France but Olivier Giroud can’t catch a break with his compatriots.
Despite netting his country’s second goal in a 3-2 win against Cameroon last night, the Arsenal striker was subjected to whistles before the friendly match in Nantes – a reaction to him being selected ahead of Karim Benzema – and when he missed a late one-on-one chance.
Giroud scores for France with a brilliant volley. 2-1 pic.twitter.com/L7gHSnmJ3v
— Terje (@TerjeGooner) May 30, 2016
Speaking after the match about the crowd’s reaction, coach Didier Deschamps made clear the criticism was unwarranted.
“You hear what you want. The whistles were unfair tonight, but in Biarritz, he was applauded. People can be conditioned,” he said.
“But Olivier scored again. When you say it, you are not helpful. You are free to say what you want but this is not necessarily the truth.”
The man himself also wasn’t too pleased.
Olivier Giroud post-match: ‘I don’t understand the boos. We expect supporters to encourage us. It’s a shame’ #LesBleus #Arsenal
— Matt Spiro (@mattspiro) May 31, 2016
Whether the French public like it or not Giroud looks certain to lead the line for his country when they kick-off the tournament on 10 June against Romania. Laurent Koscielny, who played the full 90 minutes last night, also appears to be a likely starter.
How about that cross from Pogba too, wow!
Fantastic cross from Pogba!
Let’s buy him! 😉
Hopefully Kos n Giroud do not get injured and can play our first PL game!
Just blackmail another shortarse french midfielder with a sex tape and the french will love you again olivier. What’s samir nasri up to?
They were just saying “Girooooouuuuuud,” obviously.
“Were you saying boo or Giroooourns?”
Morons.
Whistles are always going to be louder than people not whistling. I know that sounds Irish. But what I mean is that it only takes a few hundred people out of the many thousand that were there to whistle and it seems like a lot. And with mob mentality what it is, people will follow the herd too and whistle for the sake of it to be like the rest. Maybe a lot of french people have a soft spot for Arsenal and this Giroud baiting thing carries over from that. But it is not deserved. The guy does not… Read more »
Bemzema should apologise for not being like Giroud or Henry.
Fucker hasn’t joined Arsenal.
Is Benzema really worth the hype? I still understand a 24 year old Benzema, not this ageing, scheming, galactico-behaving one. He just SEEMS like one of those people who’ll imbalance a squad in the dressing room.
Non-penalty goals per 90 minutes 2015/16:
Aguero: 0.76
Olivier Giroud: 0.56
Vardy: 0.54
Kane: 0.53
Defoe: 0.49
Lukaku: 0.48
Alexis: 0.48
Wow. I’ve always thought penalties should be excluded from the goals count…
considering there is a major diver in that list. i agree
“a” ???
Way more than one in that list, mate.
I dont see just “a” in the list!
That might be right but the stats don’t tell you is that when we needed him and the pressure was on he went missing. Those figures are also massaged but a final day hat trick against an already relegated Villa, who are without question the worst premier league team of the last 10-15 years. Giroud is a good player but he’s not quite good enough, which isn’t a massive criticism. He’s amongst the top 20 strikers in the World but in order for Arsenal to be where they should be we need an 5-10% improvements in a couple of position,… Read more »
If you are going to discount goals scored against “poor” teams then all of those guys will take a hit, not just Giroud.
I didn’t say discount them I said massaged, as the game was a virtually meaningless and against a team that had already had its spirit broken.
Do you mean like Newcastle vs Spurs and kane’s hattrick against them?
I couldn’t give a fuck about Kane and Spurs
Kane didn’t score a hat trick against them, he did however score 20+ league goals for the second year running at 22 years old, something a 30 year old Giroud has never done.
Kane is a much better player than Giroud.
they didnt have Ozil and co. behind them. stats alone don’t say much. for example we all know a Lukaku would do much better as an Arsenal forward than hes done there at Everton.
But at the same time ozil and co were not performing during that time. It is a team effort and if one player is not getting you a goal you assist the other or you score yourself.
Giroud is a beast from crosses yet we could barely get balls of substance to him. Poor supply poor end product that is what I think. And the hyped backups having even less end product.
No, we don’t know Lukaku would do better at Arsenal than at Everton. At Everton he’s the One Guy they feed much much more so than at Arsenal. Sure, we can say ‘but we have Ozil to feed him’, which is true, but there are 8 other field players and a system to work within. Opposition doesn’t just sit back and park the bus against Everton as consistently as against Arsenal. There quite simply is not as much freedom for a striker to operate in with our style of play. So unless we would change our entire style of play… Read more »
Deulofeu gets on the ball a good bit, Barkley takes quite a few shots. When Naismith was at Everton he scored a lot of goals too. Lukaku is only the 5th player at 23 years of age to score 50 Pl goals. The other 4 are Fowler, Owen, Rooney, and Cristiano Ronaldo. As detestable as most of the players on that list are, they’re achievers at their clubs. I think there are quite a few raw edges to his game but at his age and with players of a higher technical level at Arsenal, I’m sure he can be polished… Read more »
One thing this tells you: Aguero is much better than anyone else in England at scoring goals. He’s not coming to Arsenal. Neither are Lewandowski or Mueller, or the three at Barcelona or Ronaldo or Bale; we tried for Benzema. Which really does not leave a lot of scorers who would clearly be a significant improvement on Giroud. Higuain for sure, probably (but not certainly) Morata, possibly Lukaku. Some young guys may turn out to be (Martial, for example), but have not come near proving it yet. This isn’t an argument for not improving–maybe a (very expensive) move for Higuain… Read more »
But if you’re benched for poor form or out injured and another forward has a lower rate of conversion but more goals, then who’s better? Sometimes absolutes are better indicators.
Non-penalty goals + assists per 90 2015/16:
Aguero: 0.83
Olivier Giroud: 0.78
Firmino: 0.77
Özil: 0.74
Payet: 0.73
De Bruyne: 0.72
yeah. Girouds a world class striker and the reason Ozil had all those assists :))
We wouldn’t want Aguero then. Comparing these figures to the non-assists ones proves he’s just a greedy bastard who won’t pass. If we had Aguero (and he stayed fit, which is hardly a given) he might stick a few more away than Giroud but Alexis wouldn’t get as many as he does now. As a team we’d probably score less and end up in shitty 4th place rather than respectable 2nd place. From the evidence of last season’s PL finishing places my logic is clearly unassailable.
were they saying boo
or booo-urns
I was saying boo-urns
The French aren’t exactly the most supportive fans are they? They boo the rugby team every time they’re not playing with flair (even if they’re winning) too.
They’re clearly difficult to please.
They aren’t booing because their players are playing poorly or without flair, they boo because they would rather be surrendering.
Giroud gets a lot of unfair criticism for not being someone he never was. If you expect him to have a goal scoring record of Messi, Suarez etc then the problem is with you.
I think he was a bargain when you see that he only cost us £12 million and you get benteke for £35 million.
Thank you for that Benteke reference. Lest we forget half the forum was screaming for us to sign him last summer and I was thinking to myself “the f*ck does he bring that Giroud doesn’t?” Especially if played in our system against opponents who consistently park the bus he’ll be find out. And at Liverpool that indeed is the case. And I have a feeling Lukaku may very well be in the same category, his first touch is bloody poor, there barely is any link up play with his midfielders and he misses occasional sitters here and there! He is… Read more »
French fans are a funny lot. Just the other day they were booing benzema saying giroud should be starting ahead of him. And i remember the manager sticking with benzema during his goal-draught despite the boos. Stupid glory hunters.
Tell you what, french fans are morons. I should know I am french myself. When it comes to the national team, people mostly know PSG and the Ligue 1. You can bet your house that the whistle guys do not know any other championship that the french one. They see Giroud as a weak link and probably don’t know he scored more than 20 goals. They also see Kosc as “the guy who gets red cards”, therefore a bad guy too. They also see Ben Arfa as the second coming of Jesus, since in the Ligue 1 (there, again) he… Read more »
You mean… you mean… most French football supporters are just like most English supporters?
I thought that all European football supporters were more knowledgeable about football and more loyal to their teams than us pig-headed, thick as shit English fans.
Your mention that French fans only know PSG reminds me of my old geography lessons at school. The only book we had about France was “Paris and the French Desert” by Jean-François Gravier.
You mean French football supporters are like national team supporters in any country who only tune in once every two years when they notice all the adverts at the grocery store in May.
What are they smoking in France ?
Shouldn’t that be: “What aren’t they smoking in France” 🙂
A great goal with a superb cross! I hope he continues his scoring form with France and continues it with us for the up and coming season.
I bet he will be top scorer in the euros..and will still be booed.
I don’t get it, he puts in a shift, scores some important goals and makes loads of assists. It’s not his fault he’s not Thierry in his prime or that the squad could do with a few additions. It’s like booing a great pizza cos you wanted steak and chips.
Looks like he’s been on his olly-bobs
France is not a football nation. Never was. Once every decade or two comes a Zidane or Platini but that’s pretty much it. Even Henry got booed so I wouldn’t take it personally if I was Giroud.
Well no you cannot say that. France dominated from 98 to 2002 just like Spain or Germany did recently.
That the fans are fickle, yeah ok, that’s another thing, and I agree.
I mean I could go on a rant about England not having any decent recent success but… I’ll refrain from it.
Depends on your age really. 1966 wasn’t all that long ago for some of us 🙂
I’m not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but unless you’re born between 1920-40, I don’t see how 50 years wouldn’t count as a long time. Even then, 50 years is more than half a lifetime ago, not recent by any stretch of the imagination.
Ask any Spuds fan, 55 years is REALLY long time!
Giroud is great!
Giroud is decent.
Giroud is average.
Giroud is pretty much crap.
I have held all of these views regularly, not just between games but sometimes within the same games. What the hell? Maybe they are all true?
Not Giroud’s biggest fan, but this was just wrong. If he plays well, praise and cheer him on. Don’t boo him when he scores from his only shot on target.
Then again, Henry, Trezeguet and Benzema have also been booed before.
The French get just as jealous as any nation, when the person they love/sleep/live with sits up and notices the extremely gorgeous number 9 (or 12) Olivier Giroud! It’s not rocket science!