Olivier Giroud

[Vesper 28,801]

France boss Didier Deschamps insists it's 'not ideal' for Olivier Giroud to 'play three days a week' for Chelsea after his resurgence in form... less than a month after warning striker he could lose his Euro 2020 spot if he didn't get enough minutes!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-9030345/France-boss-Didier-Deschamps-insists-not-ideal-Olivier-Giroud-play-three-days-week.html

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

Cannot make DD happy 

[MoroccanBlue 5,297]

What a fucking nightmare he is 

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

And the funniest part is that even if Giroud is moved to academy squad he would still be French number one striker based on everything we saw over the years...

[NikkiCFC 7,950]

In the last almost 7 games we scored one goal from open play not involving Giroud. 

[Blue Armour 4,278]

This is no fault of Giroud, and obviously we are benefitting from his goals, but I can't help but wonder if our team is becoming a bit lazy in terms of build up play simply because he is there on the pitch.

In the past few games where he has started, all our passes have gone to the wide areas.

Our full backs look to swing a high cross into the box at the earliest opportunity, negating all play through the middle.

Even Chillwell, who in his first few games was looking to get into the opposition box to get on the end of low crosses from the opposite flank, etc.,..seems to hang back and lob a cross into the box to find Giroud.

Then there's the fact that his lack of pace means, our pressing and buildup play is a bit slower as a consequence. 

Anyway the point is...starting Giroud in every game against every type of opposition is not the answer I think. 

[Jase 43,479]

10 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

This is no fault of Giroud, and obviously we are benefitting from his goals, but I can't help but wonder if our team is becoming a bit lazy in terms of build up play simply because he is there on the pitch.

In the past few games where he has started, all our passes have gone to the wide areas.

Our full backs look to swing a high cross into the box at the earliest opportunity, negating all play through the middle.

Even Chillwell, who in his first few games was looking to get into the opposition box to get on the end of low crosses from the opposite flank, etc.,..seems to hang back and lob a cross into the box to find Giroud.

Then there's the fact that his lack of pace means, our pressing and buildup play is a bit slower as a consequence. 

Anyway the point is...starting Giroud in every game against every type of opposition is not the answer I think. 

Maybe Wenger was onto something when he wasn't starting Giroud week in week out at Arsenal...

As you alluded to there, I don't think Giroud contributes much to the overall play of the team if he isn't scoring the goals and he presents a tactical problems for the team as well. As we saw against Everton and Wolves, he did zilch - apart from the goal at Wolves - and those two teams looked comfortable dealing with Giroud's physicality, especially when they know he doesn't have the mobility and pace to hurt them. 

[Alabama 1,992]

I hope people can see why Giroud has not been starting for a while before he was drafted back into the starting line up few games now...

[Jase 43,479]

14 hours ago, NikkiCFC said:

In the last almost 7 games we scored one goal from open play not involving Giroud. 

Put it this way; Before Giroud was put back into the starting XI, our attacking play looked fluid and we were scoring a good number of goals and the goals were scored by different players. But ever since he came back in, our play looked less fluid and only him is the one mainly scoring. 

[Blue Armour 4,278]

6 hours ago, Jason said:

Maybe Wenger was onto something when he wasn't starting Giroud week in week out at Arsenal...

As you alluded to there, I don't think Giroud contributes much to the overall play of the team if he isn't scoring the goals and he presents a tactical problems for the team as well. As we saw against Everton and Wolves, he did zilch - apart from the goal at Wolves - and those two teams looked comfortable dealing with Giroud's physicality, especially when they know he doesn't have the mobility and pace to hurt them. 

This is my biggest complaint against Lampard.

His method for squad rotation, or lack thereof.

Some players will always be in the lineup if fit, but then there is this flavor of the month policy, where he sticks with someone if they happen to be in good nick, until we fail a few games on the trot., and then moves onto the next flavor of the month.

I saw this happen with Alonso, Jorginho and Giroud last season. 

The same is also true for our squad shape. He always described himself as a manager who isnt afraid to change shape depending on situation, but he gets caught in the trap of whichever formation brought the most recent success.

Its like he gets comfortable with something and is reluctant to make adjustments to it.

I've digressed here, but my problem with Giroud is not really regarding the player himself.

[Jase 43,479]

22 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

This is no fault of Giroud, and obviously we are benefitting from his goals, but I can't help but wonder if our team is becoming a bit lazy in terms of build up play simply because he is there on the pitch.

In the past few games where he has started, all our passes have gone to the wide areas.

Our full backs look to swing a high cross into the box at the earliest opportunity, negating all play through the middle.

Even Chillwell, who in his first few games was looking to get into the opposition box to get on the end of low crosses from the opposite flank, etc.,..seems to hang back and lob a cross into the box to find Giroud.

Then there's the fact that his lack of pace means, our pressing and buildup play is a bit slower as a consequence. 

Anyway the point is...starting Giroud in every game against every type of opposition is not the answer I think. 

Just going back to this, did a breakdown of the goalscorers and number of different goalscorers based on who starts upfront and it is rather interesting...

WHEN ABRAHAM STARTS AS ST
Abraham ****
Werner ****
Havertz ***
Jorginho ***
CHO **
Giroud **
Chilwell **
Zouma **
Mount *
Barkley *
Ziyech *
Silva *

WHEN GIROUD STARTS AS ST
Giroud ******
Zouma *
Pulisic *
Werner *

WHEN WERNER STARTS AS ST
Werner ***
Jorginho *
Zouma *
James *
Havertz *
CHO *
Ziyech *
Pulisic *

(* = number of goals scored)

[Blue Armour 4,278]

14 hours ago, Jason said:

Just going back to this, did a breakdown of the goalscorers and number of different goalscorers based on who starts upfront and it is rather interesting...

WHEN ABRAHAM STARTS AS ST
Abraham ****
Werner ****
Havertz ***
Jorginho ***
CHO **
Giroud **
Chilwell **
Zouma **
Mount *
Barkley *
Ziyech *
Silva *

WHEN GIROUD STARTS AS ST
Giroud ******
Zouma *
Pulisic *
Werner *

WHEN WERNER STARTS AS ST
Werner ***
Jorginho *
Zouma *
James *
Havertz *
CHO *
Ziyech *
Pulisic *

(* = number of goals scored)

VERY interesting stats. Thanks for the share!

We would need a bigger sample size (for Giroud starting) to be sure, but it shouldn't be surprising that's the case.

Again, it's not all down to Giroud. Feel players like Mount and Havertz., should benefit from knockdowns provided by Giroud and create goalscoring chances for themselves. 

We're just trying to take the easy way out by pumping so many crosses into the box. 

Giroud's shortcoming is that he isnt so mobile. If there are physical CBs like Coady or those of Everton, he becomes less useful, as he wont drop too deep like Kane or move out to the wings like Drogba used to do for us at times and pump in crosses.

The obvious solution is to have someone like Drogba up front, but that's easier said than done., lol.

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, Blue Armour said:

VERY interesting stats. Thanks for the share!

We would need a bigger sample size (for Giroud starting) to be sure, but it shouldn't be surprising that's the case.

Again, it's not all down to Giroud. Feel players like Mount and Havertz., should benefit from knockdowns provided by Giroud and create goalscoring chances for themselves. 

We're just trying to take the easy way out by pumping so many crosses into the box. 

Giroud's shortcoming is that he isnt so mobile. If there are physical CBs like Coady or those of Everton, he becomes less useful, as he wont drop too deep like Kane or move out to the wings like Drogba used to do for us at times and pump in crosses.

The obvious solution is to have someone like Drogba up front, but that's easier said than done., lol.

Giroud has started upfront in the same amount of games as Werner (5), while Abraham has started 10 games upfront. 

As you have alluded to, because Giroud is not quick and doesn't move well enough, that can become a problem in creating spaces in tight areas for others to operate in. If we can't play off him upfront, then we would probably become predictable by just dumping crosses for him to score. Everything becomes too focused on him to score and not enough variation in our play. If he converts everything like he did at Sevilla, then that's great but we know that will only happen once in a blue moon.

[Blue Armour 4,278]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

Giroud has started upfront in the same amount of games as Werner (5), while Abraham has started 10 games upfront. 

As you have alluded to, because Giroud is not quick and doesn't move well enough, that can become a problem in creating spaces in tight areas for others to operate in. If we can't play off him upfront, then we would probably become predictable by just dumping crosses for him to score. Everything becomes too focused on him to score and not enough variation in our play. If he converts everything like he did at Sevilla, then that's great but we know that will only happen once in a blue moon.

Yes, and that goes back to Lampard's problem with just persisting with the flavor of the month.

Ideally he should make adjustments based on the opposition, but he tends to stick with something until it becomes a dead horse beaten too many times.

None of our strikers are versatile like Drogba or Kane, so we would need to constantly adjust the lineup based on opposition, rather than you use the same front 3 every time .

[Jase 43,479]

23 minutes ago, Blue Armour said:

Yes, and that goes back to Lampard's problem with just persisting with the flavor of the month.

Ideally he should make adjustments based on the opposition, but he tends to stick with something until it becomes a dead horse beaten too many times.

None of our strikers are versatile like Drogba or Kane, so we would need to constantly adjust the lineup based on opposition, rather than you use the same front 3 every time .

He's also trying to get Giroud to stay in January...

[Blue Armour 4,278]

18 minutes ago, Jason said:

He's also trying to get Giroud to stay in January...

That might be it, and yeah, we do need to hold on to Giroud. However regardless of what Giroud wants, I would imagine Lampard will rotate in the upcoming weeks with so many fixtures in quick succession.

I wish that having a huge squad would not be so difficult to hold on to so many players. In previous successful seasons we got away with just Drogba and Costa, plus a backup striker

Tammy might have the attributes to become a decent all round forward, but he is yet to convince against a top level defense. The game against Spurs showed how far he is in terms of fulfilling that role 

[Johnnyeye 7,441]

nice video

[Jase 43,479]

Desailly on why Giroud will never be as important for us as he is for France...

https://www.goal.com/en/news/giroud-will-never-be-as-important-for-chelsea-as-he-is-for/v0sc4yyb9ovn1f0832e0fpgmg

Quote

"He is not the future of Chelsea and he can never be the main man," Desailly told  Goal , as part of the  Nissan UEFA Champions League Trophy Tour.

"He can only be important at moments for the club because Lampard can be clever to study the opponents and use him in specific games against teams who don’t like facing a player with his strengths.

"I believe that Lampard has helped Giroud shine often by getting a lot out of him but he can’t be the first choice for Lampard. He has Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner to compete with, so he can’t maintain his first-choice status from the start until the end.

"It is just down to Lampard to use him at the right time, get runners around him to allow him to shine. He is 34 years old now so don’t ask him to be the main man but make sure that he is important when he is needed. With his age, and status as a world champion, then I think this is about how and when you use him."

"He is indispensable for the national team," he continued. "Giroud is the perfect team-mate and player for the France national team. He is the first choice in the national team. [Anthony] Martial doesn’t combine as well in the national team as Giroud.

"[Kylian] Mbappe can play down the middle but he is the world champion from being out wide. You have to pick Giroud, who is the second top scorer in France’s history, even if at club level he is on and off."