Piers Morgan has labelled Olivier Giroud a ‘second-tier striker’ and believes Arsene Wenger should target an ‘absolute predator’ upfront this summer.
Despite the odd off-game, the French forward has been in decent form for the Gunners since his return to the squad back in mid-January, scoring nine goals in his last 14 outings.
But some Arsenal fans still believe the 28-year-old is not at the required level to fire Arsenal to Champions League and Premier League glory, including Morgan.
The outspoken journalist and season ticket holder believes that although Giroud is a ‘good striker’, the Frenchman is nowhere near the world’s best:
‘Giroud is a second-tier striker.
‘Giroud is scoring goals at the moment and playing quite well, and is a good striker, but he is nowhere near the level of a Ronaldo, a [Lionel] Messi, a [Luis] Suarez, a Neymar.’
Speaking about the upcoming transfer window this summer, he added:
‘Up front we have got to have an absolute predator.
‘If we want to win things, we have got to be brutal in our policy of signing world class players and making sure they have around them the type of players that will bring out the best in them.’
Arsene Wenger added Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez to the squad over the summer but has kept faith in Giroud by playing him in the centre-forward role ahead of the former duo and other forwards.
Wenger previously claimed that Giroud goal-scoring record is impressive and also has the potential to be paced alongside the likes of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – many think otherwise, including myself.
As for Morgan’s comments, I think they’re a little harsh but also fair. Giroud is a good striker – he has excellent hold-up play, is good in the air and also scores a few goals here and there but I don’t believe he is quality forward, one which will score week in, week out, and fire us to domestic and European glory.
It would be nice to have a forward like Messi or Ronaldo but the truth is there aren’t many top strikers in world football anymore.
Do you agree with Morgan’s comments about Giroud?
Let us know your thoughts below
I think I agree with Morgan’s position on Giroud. surely he is not in the league of our former Thierry Henry, Drogba or even Etoo when these were in the best of their years. so, how can we even compare him with Messi or Ronaldo? Giroud is in the same quality level with Boni and Loic Remy and that’s it. with him as our central striker, Arsenal will never win the premier league. Wenger can go on to deceive himself believing he can do so.
I feel it would be better to go out and spend our budget on a world keeper, If we have a £50 million budget this summer go and spend it on Manuel Neuer, Our keepers have cost us at least a dozen points in the league this season and our place in the CL (should have stopped 2 of the goals in the home game against Monaco). Winning game 4-0 instead of 2-0 will not win us the league. Stop blowing tight 0-0 or 1-0 game with goalkeeping errors. Just might do it.
Piers Morgan may be a journalist, but on the topic of Arsenal he’s hardly impartial. He’s a fan and he talks about Arsenal like a fan, not a journalist. A fair assessment of Giroud is that he’s very good. He’s not what I would define as World Class. but his performances say he’s close. I define World Class as one of the ten best at your position in the world.
First of all, neither Ronaldo or Messi are true solo strikers. Messi plays off to one side and Ronaldo is an out and out winger. Suarez plays as a striker, but he is not a player who has been successful playing up top by himself. All three of these players, and you can include Neymar as well, thrive playing alongside other top, top forwards. That’s how I would describe them; forwards. Not strikers. so to compare Giroud to them is unfair. He plays a completely different position than any of these players.
The traditional solo striker is a bit of an endangered species these days, but Karim Benzema plays that role for Madrid, Ibrahimovic does that job for PSG (as does Edinson Cavani when he can get a game), and Rooney used to have that job for Manchester United until RVP came along and Falcao after him. Aguero for Man City, and Mario Mandzucic, previously for Bayern Munich, now for Atletico Madrid. Diego Costa does that job for Chelsea. Robert Lewandowski is the solo striker for Bayern these days. So if Arsenal are going to replace Giroud with a striker who can do what he does, only better, then it will need to be from this pool of talent or an as-yet unknown player. The other option is to change how Arsenal play and use a less well-defined striker and deploy multiple forwards instead. Here is my top ten list. Giroud, however, would definitely be in the next ten.
1. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – PSG
2. Diego Costa – Chelsea
3. Sergio Aguero – Man City
4. Wayne Rooney – Man U
5. Robert Lewandowski – Bayern
6. Edinson Cavani – PSG
7. Karim Benzema – Real Madrid
8. Radamel Falcao – Man U
9. Mario Mandzucic – A. Madrid
10. Carlos Tevez – Juventus
paul….u think we playing in the epl? call a spade a spade and not a big spoon…..Giroud isn’t the best striker in the world…but he is the most inform striker in the whole of Europe and statistics don’t lie…..putting Mario Mandzokic in ur top ten strikers shows u not been realistic.
Utter rubbish. Morgan was one of the “knowledgeable” journos who were clamoring for Arsenal to sign Falcao because he was seemingly world class. What happened to all those people hyping him up? The peanut gallery has gone quiet now because he cannot replicate that form. Giroud outperforms a lot of world class “strikers” (I use the word in the strictest sense). But because he didn’t come with a huge price tag, he is not what we need? Let Arsenal do what he does best. If you want to support teams that buy quality, world class strikers, please go. I’m sure the likes of Man City and Chelsea could do with your kind of support.
Let them speak their minds giroud shoul have scored double in the last game with monaco
I think with the support of the midfield available today, giroud get the job done pretty well. More important is that he performs and scores in big n tense matches which shows he is mentally strong also. He might not be in the league of the best strikers but he is getting there.