I’d take Giroud critics more seriously if the approached the subject with an ounce of objectivity and fairness. Giroud has single handedly unlocked this teams arieal potential in the final third
This idea that Giroud slows down our attacks or messes up our counter attacking transitions is a complete myth at this point.
A grumpy celebration. Now ive heard it all.
Bit harsh to accuse @Robin_L using your fancy Latin words given he was just responding to what Castiel said 
It would be insulting to Giroud to say he’s a worse footballer than Walcott/Welbeck/Perez, but Alexis Sanchez really needs to be starting at CF for us IMO and Giroud can’t play elsewhere. I don’t feel Alexis is as dominant on the left when playing with Olly.
What really needs to happen though is we need another proper quality forward to play with Ozil, Sanchez and Iwobi.
I wouldn’t mind going back to sanchez iwobi and Walcott up front as that was when we played our best football but we also had Cazorla in midfield so I guess it may be a moot point.
Alexis cant play up front every game. Im confident he is still first choice in the pecking order.
True, but on the whole he’s still been starting out wide when Giroud starts up front, so it’s not like he’s been rested.
I hope we soon go back to Alexis starting up front and Giroud being on the bench, and I say that kind of as one of Giroud’s fans on here. He’s done well as a sub this season and pretty much earned a starting berth for a run of games. He’s done well in terms of goals and contributions in those games but unfortunately for him we look much better overall with Alexis up front.
Time to get back to that for at least a few games before placating Giroud with a start.
Alexis upfront isn’t feasible if Walcott isn’t in the line up. Giroud upfront is our best bet until then and he isn’t doing a bad job either.
Good point actually. I wonder then if Girouds inclusion is both to maintain his match fitness, and because Alexis on the left offers significantly more solidarity defensively.
However i agree with you whole heartedly. Ive yoyo’d with Giroud however as a backup i love him, and i want his role to continue.
Alexis as a our main striker is vital.
I disagree that it isn’t feasible (especially once Welbeck is fully fit again) but I understand where you’re coming from and agree that Walcott playing has thus far been an important component in the way we play with Alexis up front.
I honestly feel like Perez or Welbeck are more than well suited at playing on the wing in place of Walcott. They’ve both got pace, technical ability and dribbling ability to make it work.
Iwobi Alexis Welbeck/Perez is arguably one of our strongest lineups.
He scores in 5 consecutive games - the first Arsenal player to do so since 2008 FYI - yet people think a player who hasn’t played all season should play instead. FML.
This is a bit misleading. We aren’t asking for this player to play in the same position as Giroud, so in a true sense we aren’t asking for a player who hasn’t played all season to play instead. What we are asking is for Alexis to replace Giroud’s role in the starting line up, Iwobi to replace Sanchez on the left and then Welbeck to play on the right.
If Giroud was a candidate for the wide right position then you’d have more of a point imo, because then we would be directly choosing Welbeck over him.
What we’re actually doing is choosing Alexis over Giroud.
Giroud is good at holding up the ball. This thing allows our midfielders to come from behind and be dangerous.
But the point still stands. If a player is scoring goals then why should he be dropped? I get that we play more attractive football when Giroud isn’t playing, but it’s a results game, and if we’re winning and he is scoring then why fix what isn’t broken?
Welbeck and Lucas are decent options, but I don’t think they can perform the same role that Walcott does in that particular formation. The runs in behind between CB and fullback are crucial and I don’t think Welbeck or Lucas will excel in that role as both are adept to playing with their back to the goal and occupying the center-halves, but not sure about running through the inside channel.
Anyway I feel using Giroud is the most efficient way to play against teams that sit back deep and defend and Sanchez’ pace will be useless if there is no space in behind.
He scores just as reliably from the bench and the majority of his goals have been coming late on in matches, so by dropping him we basically lose nothing but gain the advantage of playing better football. I like Giroud and often defend him but the reality is that most of our best performances over the past couple of seasons have come when he isn’t starting. Both 3-0 wins against Man U and Chelsea being the most glaringly obvious examples.
They are good in their own right but the key difference I feel is they excel in runs from in to out to create space for others, whereas Walcott is better at arriving inwards in spaces created by Alexis dropping deep. We are yet to see any examples of Lucas running in behind a defense yet.
Yeah, I’ve said in this thread already that Giroud shouldn’t be starting every match, I accept that. But at the moment how do you drop a guy who is scoring regularly? And why would you want to?!
It just seems like people hate on him for no reason. 3 points is 3 points however you get them.
Well it’s been very clearly explained to you why people would want to drop him.
I don’t hate on him for no reason (yeah some do but you’re responding to my posts here), if you don’t take my word for it on me often defending him the evidence is here in this thread.
Saying “3 points is 3 points however you get them” is just about the least Arsenal thing I’ve heard someone say. Obviously you never turn your nose up at a win and that is the most important thing, but if you can do it whilst playing better and more entertaining football then that’s even better. Also, I think we’ll more regularly pick up 3 points with Alexis up front. We play more entertaining and more efficient football with him up front imo, and that will lead to more wins.
You can switch back to Alexis playing as CF fairly soon or we can wait for Giroud to start one of his infamous barren streaks, let his confidence go to shit due to poor form and then further compound that lack of confidence by dropping him. You say that you agree he shouldn’t be our first choice, so for how long exactly do you want him to continue being our first choice as he currently is?