It’s not as if he absolutely stink the place. He played his part.
Everyone knows that Giroud is a limited player and only a complete delusional person would want to frame him as a world class player; so I don’t get the continuous emphasis on reminding everyone that he couldn’t score a goal in the tournament.
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You need some substantial level of football IQ to appreciate Giroud. The most underrated player I’ve seen in my lifetime.
:giroud: 
:giroud3:
He actually averaged 2 shots per game compared to Mbappé who averaged 1.1 spg. The difference is one scored 4 and the other did nothing.
He’s a bang average striker who’s been beyond fortunate to rack up so many appearances for a France team where the manager continues to pick players like Rami in the squad ahead of guys like Laporte.
I don’t think Giroud’s continued inclusion is an indication of his worth to the French team. He has 34 goals for France and seems to do well at scoring in friendlies and qualifiers against dross teams so that negates the suggestion that he doesn’t have the opportunity to score goals for France. It’s more that he simply doesn’t have the quality.
Either way I think any praise for Giroud’s record for France is unwarranted because it’s basically saying well done for scoring in friendly fixtures and low intensity qualifiers against sub standard nations.
And it’s a fallacy that people continue to bring up about his importance as a facilitator when he had 1 assist in the entire World Cup (and he played 7 games).
His supposed link up abilities are totally overstated by fans.
I think it’s a little bit reductive to reduce facilitating solely to assists to be honest mate. Being a player who facilitates others doesn’t always translate into hard statistics, I think we all know this.
Tbh I’m having a fruity cider in the pub and I cant really be arsed with this haha. You’re a big detractor of his, I’ll never change your mind so really not sure how much point there is arguing the toss with you. It isn’t even a relevant argument any more, he doesn’t even play for us.
However, just out of interest I would like to see where you got the shot stats from.
Not the first time France wins the big gold with a forward firing blanks, who remembers Stephane Guivarc’h from 98 :wenger2: the french are strange.
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He’s overtaken Trezeguet now
Look, the three greatest French players of all time :giroud3:
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young lady.
Odds on he beats Platini’s tally
I think he needs to pad as much as can in friendlies and qualifiers because I suspected he’ll be on the bench by the actual tournament
As long as Deschamps is coach his place is set.
@Cristo he should. They have nine upcoming friendlies/qualifiers. Before the tournament they will also schedule a couple of friendlies probably.
Good god Platini’s stats were insane for a midfielder… forgot how damn good he was, and I am old enough to remember watching that genius.
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Who can replace? We know Deachamps doesn’t rate Laca and Martial isn’t a CF.
France hit a stride once Giroud got in that team. Deschamps is too scared to risk ruining it. Griezy and Mbappe get the best out of the front 4 involving Matuidi and Giroud.
Neymar fucking it with his constant diving gave these jokers a career ffs.
Come on now. Have to admit he is very efficient for what they do, but France was on the way up before he got in. He got lucky with the Benzema/Valbuena situation.
I mean, France have been on the way up since last Euro which Giroud was an integral part. I remember Deschamps tried going with other strikers after that but never really got it right. Once he landed on that Matuidi-Griezy-Mbappe with Giroud up ahead in the World Cup he seems to have found the right balance and the guy doesn’t seem to budge from it. He even used it against Iceland. 
@SRCJJ The On The Continent podcast with Andy Brassell and James Horncastle is worth a listen this week. There is a nice little segment about how underrated Giroud is 
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He’s not coming back, so to quote the famous song from the film Frozen, “Let It Go.” 
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Never letting it go.
You never know, he might do his coaching badges and we’ll see him in the dugout one day :giroud3:
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By then his hair will have fallen out and you’ll go right off him
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