The over reliance of the Arsenal team on Robin van Persie last season undoubtedly prompted Arsene Wenger to dip deep into his transfer chest to acquire the services of the ‘Prince of Koln’ Lukas Podolski and promising Olivier Giroud.
But the unforeseen departure of arguably the best player in the league last season, Van Persie, gave the Arsenal board a great headache, mostly thinking of whom is worthy to fill the Dutchman’s shoes.
With little time left to decide over a worthy replacement, Arsenal had to plan with what they have at hand, making Giroud and Podolski, who were signed as back up to RVP, key players to the team.
Many Arsenal fans were left frustrated to see their darling club refuse to make a shock last transfer day signing. This, however, puts more pressure upon the shoulders of the two newly recruited strikers.
In my opinion, Podolski is more suited as a central striker rather than and a winger. But his height makes him odd for this role, especially in a physical league like the Premier League. He has been frustrating the odds recently with his goal tally now up to four in nine games for Arsenal.
Giroud on the other hand has been quite disappointing. Despite him being a proven goal scorer in both international level and at his former club Montpellier, he has only managed to find the net twice in nine games, putting much pressure on him to succeed.
A lot of Arsenal fans are said to be losing their trust in Giroud’s technique and goal scoring ability. But only a few will get to see him from the same confident perspective as me. It is believed that a large chunk of great foreign strikers to have ever graced the Premier League had a rusty start to their careers in England. This is where I categorize Giroud in.
It is quite vivid that the lad is full of talent and composed, but he, in my opinion, is far too overconfident in himself. Many left footed strikers would have probably chipped the ball first time over Petr Cech rather than going round the Chelsea keeper last weekend, but only a few Premier League strikers would be able to convert the half chance that came through his goal against West Ham on Saturday evening.
Nevertheless, I strongly believe Giroud is still trying to adapt to the style of the Premier League.
He is no waste of money; neither is he another version of Marouane Chamakh. What’s great to see is that he is getting into the right positions to miss the chances, which is reassuring for all. We shall all get to see the real beauty of him by February when other strikers in the team are looking blunt and worn out.
All he needs now is another couple of goals and he shall stand to take as many bows when he is set.
This article is courtesy of Ayobami’s Blog
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Well said. He will not be a bad buy. Give him time and he will be the next RVP.
in this league people are too quick to judge.
Lets hope so.
i go along with you…but how could we be so sure?
Olivier Giroud should sit on the bench & watch others play on the pitch by so he will understand how arsenal plays their footbal & he will learn well