Olivier Giroud says France coach Didier Deschamps has stressed the importance of playing regular football ahead of this summer’s World Cup and admits he’ll have to assess his options in January if he’s not getting regular game time at Arsenal.
For the moment, the striker tends to get the nod ahead of Alexandre Lacazette when he’s on international duty, however, at the Emirates the situation is reversed with Arsene Wenger preferring to deploy his new signing.
This season all 13 of Giroud’s Premier League appearances have been as a substitute, a situation that is playing on his mind.
“I have the World Cup at the back of my mind weekly, almost daily,” he told L’Equipe.
“Each time I go onto the pitch, it’s to be more clinical and keep on track for the World Cup.
“During international get-togethers, the coach usually warns me against that.
“He has told me the things he wanted to tell me, which is totally logical and I understand. He wants me to play more. If I wasn’t able to leave this summer, it was because of the opportunities I had.
“It wouldn’t have been good to leave for leaving’s sake, but it’s certain that eventually, even in January, I’m going to have to ask myself the question again. It won’t be easy to find the right solution and take the right decision, but we’ll look at the opportunities.”
For his part, Arsene Wenger says that Giroud, who yesterday equalled Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s record of 17 goals as a substitute, will not be going anywhere in January.
Acutely aware that the attacker, who he signed from Montpellier in 2012, is hungry for more game time, the boss promised him exactly that.
“He will start more games,” Wenger said after the draw with Southampton.
“I believe as well it’s always the same when you have many good players, some of them cannot play. The question you get is always why does the guy who is good not play?
“Because if you take him on you have another guy who is good who will not play, it is as simple as that.”
Pushed in his press conference as to whether such an important squad member could leave in January, Wenger replied: “In your question is the answer, because you say he is important, why should we lose an important player?”
Need him around as Welbeck hasn’t regained his early season form. It’s impossible to let both he and Theo to leave because they’ve both got goals in them.
Need to switch back to a 4 at the back to get the best out of these 2.
I would have got Mahrez last summer in lieu of Walcott or Welbeck for that matter. We need another force out right who can balance the take one Alexis does. It may also help curb the Chilean’s sometime over enthusiasm. But it would also have pushed the Chilean and Ozil to signing or at very least we would have had cover already for one of them. Poor planning due to a tendency to mollycoddle players. Same situation with Ganbry. When the young German was itching for a prominent first team role, we should have forced the Ox then to either… Read more »
Why would they sign because Mahrez is here? lol what world are you living in?
A large number of players on the brink of leaving very soon…
Alexis, Ozil, Per, Ospina, Theo and Giroud.
Will we have yet another transitional season next year?!?
I thought we were in transition this year????
We’ve been transitioning since the Invincibles.
Wenger adamant he is staying….he’s off then…
Wenger has inadvertently done just about everything he could have done to put the next manager in a tough spot. Sanchez, Ozil, Wilshere leaving for nothing. Ramsey, Welbeck, Walcott etc look like they’ll enter their final year without the club managing to renew with them. Limited money for major signings, as evidenced by the club leaks at the end of the window revealing that no big acquisitions were possible without star players being sold.If he had just gone at the end of last season, we could have really kicked on without having to enter a long 3-6 year rebuilding period… Read more »
Lol now you want the club to renew Walcott? Damn if you do, Damn if you don’t lol
If all those players were to leave then we would have space and money from all those lost wages to bring in new blood
I thought the point is to transfer new players in so we have new faces to criticize?
I’d like to see him started along Lacazette. 4-4-2 perhaps?
But more likely it won’t happen though
I’d also like to see it, but would say 442 works best with a good center back pairing, a good defensive mid and 1 or two tricky wingers. All of which we don’t have.
4-3-1-2! I would play him up top with Laca now even if it meant benching Alexis, who is on his way anyway. Giroud is still a “long-term” option since his game isn’t based on pace and therefore can be of good use for years to come.
To be honest, I feel like 4312 isn’t the silver bullet people make it out to be – and for the record I would love to see two at the top. Realistically we would hope to use it VS hard to break down teams, as the extra striker would definitely help. However therein lies the problem: it has no natural width, which requires the full backs to push up and provide it. As these are matches we dominate and get countered usually, this is really asking for more of the same, especially as we don’t have a destroyer type midfielder… Read more »
I think Wenger is trying to use more than one formation at once in a match–that’s why he continues to buy flexible players who can fulfill multiple positions, and continues to stress the speed of transition. Technically, with the way our forwards interweave, it’s very possible for the more mobile striker to fall back into an advanced midfield position, then a cdm into a back-three. 4-3-1-2 : 3-5-1-1, constantly transitioning to create an overload from the base of the buildup, where the transitions happen most dynamically on the counter. Not sure if this is something or just nonsense, but the… Read more »
It’s not a zero sum. I’ve said it fir some seasons that frankly formation is moot. We SHOULD be able to interchange within formations so long as our basics are sound. But our midfield continues to be a problem. Ramsey is again showing signs of over adventurism encamping himself in static at edge of opponents box. This leaves us short covering when turnover and also leaves Granit isolated when we play out of our own half which means poorer outlets for the Cbacks with the wing backs covered by a pair of quick opponents. Ostensibly Ramsey feels compelled to add… Read more »
This must be extremely frustrating for Giroud. He seems to hold a high regard for Arsenal. I think I’m correct in saying that all his French caps have come since joining us. I think that if he could have his way he’d stay at Arsenal until the end of his career as the first choice striker, but that didn’t seem likely any more. He’d be a perfect fit at Everton. A good club currently underperforming, he’d start as their main man playing under Allardyce who doesn’t need fast players to play his brand of football. If he decides to leave… Read more »
When it comes to World Cup, coaches try to cater for injuries during the competition. They prefer strikers who can also play on the wing. The rise of Mbappe who is played on the wing by Deschamps but can also play as a CF makes it difficult for Giroud. Martial can play as a CF and on the wing, Griezmann can play as a CF or behind the CF, Lacazette is more fit for the wing than Giroud. Now there is the abundance of talent. How do you let Dembele behind ? Coaches fit guys like that in the team… Read more »
Deschamps has shown that he likes to have a traditional number 9–even calling Gignac, who pretty clearly is not the same quality as the rest of the squad. And he likes Giroud with Griezmann. Winning the World Cup (surely a realistic goal for France with these players) requires a deep squad–lots of intense matches close together, lots of injury potential, very different opponents in quick succession. So, even if Giroud does not start for Arsenal very often, if he is coming off the bench and scoring, he will be in Russia. I hope someone tells him that before the window.
It will be hard to exclude Giroud who is in his champagne years.
He brings a unique set of ability to France particularly against teams who decide to draw into a shell.
But Deschamp is putting pressure on Arsene to make Giroud play at the highest level as much as possible to keep this sword sharp.
You have to understand the subtlety of what Deschamp is doing don’t take things at face value.
Why not play both in a 4 4 2?
I wouldn’t mind him leaving after “looking at the opportunities”, we are clearly not going to win the league so at least playing for the jersey should be the goal. I love Ollie but right now it doesn’t feel like a lot of players are concerned about the club and the fans. Hope Wenger’s successor will play the young boys, we need an era of De Rossi’s and Totti’s, players that will bleed for us.
Lol only players that are going to “bleed” for the club are the ones that get paid enough or can’t go anywhere else or because they aren’t good enough in this era.
The pic looks like Wenger is doing sprint training
As far as I can see, he will go to this world cup regardless and at his age, he’s unlikely to go to the next one anyway.
So Deschamps might as well STFU.
If Wenger wasn’t so stubborn he would have played Oli more this season and we would have benefitted a lot. Games where we’ve struggled to break down a parked bus, when we clearly needed a target man but Wenger brought on Oli at 80 minutes or something equally as insulting and stupid. There is no way our HFB should be forced to leave. He doesn’t want to, we don’t want him to, so just play him Arsene, with Lacazette. These two can both score goals and can work together for Arsenal and France. Drop Sanchez who is getting worse and… Read more »
They certainly can play together.
Problem is Arsene is trying to “accommodate” Ozil and Alexis in the vain hope one will extend. And he is also insistent on playing Ramsey in a deeper role in midfield when the Welshman really plays Ozil’s role.
This vacates midfield leaving Granit often swamped and surrounded.
With this sort of idiosyncratic midfield, it makes it difficult to play two up top except for shorter durations when we need to amador caution and go fir goals
Alexis is a lot worse than he’s given credit for. I would expect any half decent winger to score as many goals and make as many assists as he’s done, and hopefully be a better team player, given the amount of ball he gets. He’s clearly going so start planning for that and bench him. We need a decent midfielder in the January window, Ramsey is injured as usual and has no discipline to play as anything other than a pseudo striker. I think if we show some intent then Mesut will stay, I really hope so.
Before the season started most wanted another striker as a starter up front. OG wasn’t good enough to be a starter at Arsenal. All the rhetoric about him just being a plan B.
Clubs that park the bus? Most clubs park the bus against Arsenal and the rest of the top 6. That would mean that OG should be the starting striker most of the season? Damn if you do, Damn if you don’t lol
I always believed Oli was and is good enough to start, but that he couldn’t do it all alone. I still think that. The combination of Oli and Lacazette together would be a nightmare for any defence and give Mesut more to work with. The trouble is that we don’t have a properly functioning midfield, so why not fix that. At the moment Lacazette is just being bullied out of games and playing off scraps so it’s not benefitting him either.
Dechamps and Southgate. Two peas in a pod. Surely so long as Giroud is playing here and there i is fine. Why would you want your assets playing every game over the long English season. They will be burnt out by the World Cup.
You see Giroud bagging 90 minutes every week or so and scoring in the Europa league and decide to make this a problem. Stupid.
If Deschamps is aware of his ability, and he’s scoring regularly when he plays. What does it matter if he’s starting? Why is that a criterion for being in the national side? All it does is create unnecessary friction between the player and club
I think it’s more a question of match sharpness against the highest level of competition that’s the issue.
Europa opponents are not all PL standard.
I’m quite sure Deschamp is aware of Girouds better qualities. After all he was the one who started Giroud ahead of Lacazette.
He is NEVER a Plan B Wenger needs to learn to use the right tools for a job. He generally buys very well but doesn’t always know how to maximize his assets. In tight defenses like against Soton, Giroud adds the presence in the box that neither Lacazette nor Alexis can. Nor is Welbeck anywhere near convincing at the moment with poor decision making and erratic touch. To let Giroud go before Welbeck materialises is madness. Against Soton some of our old habits crept back Ramsey again pushed too far ahead and just stationed himself in the box static. This… Read more »
First off most clubs park the bus against the big 6. That would mean OG should be starting most games? When things go wrong its Ramsey’s fault for going forward to much. The fact is Xhaka is just plain slow with his passing instincts. Either the league has figured out how to defend him and he hasn’t been able to figure out how to counter it or he just isn’t good enough. I agree he needs disciplined partner to play the DM role but he knows playing with Ramsey thats not going to be the case. He should either learn… Read more »
The trouble is that none of our midfielders can play with Ramsey, and Ramsey will never change while Arsene is the manager, so everyone gets blamed but they’re left with no cover and no outlet for the ball and it’s all seemingly their faults that there’s a gaping hole in the midfield.
My New Year’s wish is the following: Get rid of Alexis in January, Move Giroud to starting up front, Lacazette to left wing to replace Alexis, start Welbeck at right wing, with Ozil in behind. That would be both a mobile front 3 with Giroud bringing power to it. I would also like to see Wilshere get regular playing time in the PL. I would also like to see us go back to a back 4, especially since we have been weak in the last 2 games with a back 3. I know there are a lot of Giroud doubters,… Read more »
Welbeck is very blunt at the moment. Our midfield needs balance. Ramsey ends to encamp too high up leaving Granit(whom I thought has had two good recent games) isolated and surrounded. The back line have little options passing out from the back bc the opponents cover our wing backs with quick players leaving just Granit to aim at. Under duress they are making mistakes with low percentage passing or in case of Mustafi’s one instance , dallying to find a pass out from the back. If anything this team should we lose Ozil and Alexis which seems likely, is crying… Read more »
Whatever happens in Jan I hope like yourself we have some changes and mainly the first one is formation change. Go back to the back 4. OBviously this team is built for that and AW doesn’t and didn’t want to change that this past summer. So lets get back to the strength of this team with the good or bad or the ugly. If we do have OG start we need players that can make passes into the box. besides Ozil or SAnchez we need better passing to make OG effective up front. I agree play Jack lets see what… Read more »
Wenger created this situation. He should be picking his forwards based on their strengths versus utility to opponents. Lacazette and Giroud are clearly different weapons…one better to exploit teams who come at us the other better at bullying space against teams who stay tightly coiled and spring on the counter. Giroud should have never been a plan B Danny Welbeck is yet to convince. Erratic touch poor decision making. If we lose Giroud in January , we only further complicate our rebuild not to mention compromise rest of season. We have aside from Ozil and Alexis, per, Koscielny, Monreal, Debuchy… Read more »
If anything you’d think France would be happy to have a fully fit and fresh Giroud ready for the WC. The ungrateful bastards…