Hi. If you could read this little piece, I'd appreciate. Would like to hear your opinion too obviously.

Giroud is one of the most criticized player in Arsenal squad, maybe in the whole BPL. Many ppl have been questioning, is he good enough for Arsenal FC?

In my opinion, he's way too criticized, because of the big goal scoring chances he has missed. It always hurts me also seeing the chances missed, and REALLY pisses me off too. What I especially hate is other clubs' fans rating him terrible player, just because they see one piece of 'highlight' from the game they didn't even see, where Giroud may have done a lot, CRUCIAL work for team, but miss one chance. But for example in this WC, the so called best player in the world ( what most footyroom users admire so much ) had 19 shots and 1 goal, missed huge chances, and I don't hear anything. Only thing ppl remember was the tap in he made. Not comparing those two btw, just saying.

Giroud is not the type of player, who runs behind and lives with his pace & dribbles, that's quite obvious. He has lots of huge qualities in him though:

• Great jumping, constantly can drop long balls.
• Great heading, gives new dimension, that Arsenal can also cross the ball to box. Also huge help in defending corners
• Great strength, and he can protect the ball really well, and take other players to attacks.
• BRILLIANT flicks, that we Arsenal fans have seen A LOT. He has made lots of scoring chances, and goals with his flicks.
• His passing is good enough, sometimes we can see really great long and short passes from him, at times he may fail, like everyone else.

Of all his qualities, what is even bigger thing, is his work for the team. When he has bad day, he still runs a lot and he's dropping little lower to defend. Protecting the ball, giving those little flicks, are the key for many attacks, eventhough we might not always realise it.

What I want to point out is that he's not only helping the team by scoring goals (which he does also, you have to remember, even though he has missed chances, he has scored goals that maybe some other striker wouldn't), but with his constant involvement in passing combos, many assists, protecting the ball etc, you know what I mean ..

Like I said before, what he lacks is pace and those runs behind (I think his pace has improved little bit, for example the run vs Switzerland where he assisted Valbuena was rather fast, he can still improve his pace though). But I actually realised that he didn't need it when we had Walcott not injured. For example he could drop the ball to Özil and Özil always put through balls to Walcott behind defenders.

I think he's good enough! He was just the only proper striker for Arsenal last season, he just basically played way too much. Arsenal FC need other type of striker than he is, NOT Mandzukic. But it's vital to get one, unless Wenger can prove that Campbell will be good enough for the other ST spot.

If you read till this point, thx. To the end would like to put a video to 'prove' my points I made. Great video, not made by me, credits to the guy who edited it.

Arsenal have signed Germany's fitness coach to lessen their injury record. hope by getting less injuries and with our squad new signings, we can go further than just the FA cup. Giroud is good upfront. i just hate to see his drama when he fell down after getting tackled by opposition. Walcott can do miracles from ozil's pass. hope that Giroud will be more lethal after this world cup. COYG.

I agree with your thorough analysis of Giroud. His link up play is brilliant at times and his first touch is golden (remember the goals against Aston Villa and West Ham?). At his best he's good and I feel there was a trend and a pattern in his dip in form particularly when Walcott was out. Honestly my opinion of Giroud is that he is best used as a team player. He's a striker yes but I feel he can play a similar role to Marco Reus in Dortmund. Of course he lacks the pace and the dribbling but you get the gist.

A good backup player is definetly not a bad investment from Arsenal's part. If there's anything we've learnt about Arsenal's fitness record is that we always falter when a key player gets injured.

Yes he is good enough.

Giroud is good, but there are those who are better. If Arsenal truly have high ambitions, they can do with a better striker IMO.

Here's what I think of Giroud, he's not "not good enough" for Aarsenal, he is "not enough" for Arsenal. He started last season like a new player, scored 5 in his first 5 games, bullied defenders, gave tons of assists (second most assists this season behind ozil), as always was crucial in defending the set pieces. You could see in his few games with the french team before and during the world cup a little of how good he was back in August - November of last year. Wenger said something on french tv when commenting the france switzerland game, he said "When he came at arsenal, giroud had one objective and it was to score goals, now he's grown beyond that and he just plays football well". I think that sums up giroud very well, he is a very special player in the sense that his profile is pretty unique, with a great first touch, a huge build, not the best pace on the ball, but he is a very very valuable player. And he's a tank, he's almost never been injured in two seasons at arsenal even if he's played almost every game ! He needs help up front, a striker with whom he'll compete, and if he can play without getting tired next season, he'll be great. That still means we need another striker. I hope he shines in the world cup. And 22 goals and 10 assists in a season is pretty good for a striker.

Something else, he is just a very likable and great individual. He gives great interviews for french tv, and he's very driven and professional, and wants to be the best he can be.

@koldimere & @KingHenry great points made from both of you, cheers.

also, KingHenry I would like to know if there's something else Wenger has said on french tv, that is worth to mention? Because I can't really understand nothing more than just few words in french.

Im not a Gunner, but I think that Giroud is a great striker that Arsenal should hold onto, especially those AMAZING flicks.

He's good enough. However he's not an individual striker, he's more of a teamplayer. I think a system where he'd have another fast striker ( like Walcott) would fit him more. Also no one gives him credit for pressing the ball. He isn't the fastest player but he has a good workrate. He keeps the defenders on their toes.

@eden17hazard17 It's okay (:

@Zakzook yeah agreed everything!

Positives:

• he can hold and cover the ball well
• great passing
• great heading
• defensive work rate
  Negatives:
• I think he's way too slow for Arsenal
• not clinical enough
• I think we need a striker who get the ball make 1-2 players and then score on his own
• cheated on his wife
  Result:
  Great striker, however he's not a player who will carry us alone, he need a striker who will fight with him for the starting XI.

Sup 9 months later. Little update what we predicted.

A goal per 96 minutes this season in BPL. 1 goal in 2 UCL appearances, 2+1 in 3 appearances in FA Cup (till this day) (played only 15mins against Man Utd)

Could see that he's been so much more clinical (forget the 1st Monaco game).

Just 3 assist in BPL, but as always, he's been one hell of an assett in creating attacks.

If I may quote few twitter accounts. ["World class" Costa a goal per 101 minutes, French FLOP Giroud a goal per 96 minutes]

Even bigger difference if we take all competitions tbh.