Emirates Cup: Arsenal vs Galatasray | 04/08/13 | 16:20

[MaestroCesc]

Granted our crossing lacks some accuracy, but at the same time, Giroud's positioning makes the required cross nearly impossible.

His box movement on crosses is terrible; he's almost always firmly between both center backs. Any cross that clears the near CB will most likely sail over his head. Giroud should at least vary his movement on crosses; attack the near post, back out to the far CB and fight for position at the back post, fake a hard charge at the goal line and then when the CBs are committed pull back to penalty spot, anything.

I disagree.

Regularly last season Giroud was making runs to the near post or peeling off to the far post only for Sagna or Gibbs (often despite being in a perfect position and with time to cross) to needlessly dummy a cross, thereby missing Giroud's run, before putting the ball in; take so bloody long to put the ball in there that it gets blocked; or simply under or over-hit it.

I thought it was the other way round, so many times the ball went across the goalmouth and Giroud was just standing there with non existent movement, that alot.

The reason they wait to put the ball in is because Giroud or sometimes even nobody is in the box, so they wait for more people or simply pass it back to rebuild the move.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

If Cazorla continues to play on the left then we're going to see Walcott suffer for it next season.

Unless Walcott is being fed through by someone who has the vision to pick him out and play the right pass then his skill set is very limited (and I like Theo)

Agreed, Walcott needs to be used in a very specific way. Shame he isn't playing with Cesc any more, we'd see huge numbers from him at this age with a world class playmaker in midfield. He's arguably one of the most devastating players in the world in the right setup - one we don't currently fully utilise.

 

[McIntyre]

Regularly last season Giroud was making runs to the near post or peeling off to the far post only for Sagna or Gibbs (often despite being in a perfect position and with time to cross) to needlessly dummy a cross, thereby missing Giroud's run, before putting the ball in; take so bloody long to put the ball in there that it gets blocked; or simply under or over-hit it.

I thought it was the other way round, so many times the ball went across the goalmouth and Giroud was just standing there with non existent movement, that alot.

The reason they wait to put the ball in is because Giroud or sometimes even nobody is in the box, so they wait for more people or simply pass it back to rebuild the move.

Well, I certainly remember repeatedly seeing him making moves towards the near and far posts only for the crosses to be delayed, fluffed, blocked or not attempted at all.

I remember the occasions when he was static or too slow to react as well; but I think the number of times the full-backs make the wrong decision or fluff their lines comfortably outnumbers the number of times Giroud is at fault.

We had a couple of examples of both faults during the Emirates Cup. I remember against Napoli somebody putting a peach of a cross across the 6-yard box from the left and Giroud was hanging around the penalty spot looking for a pull back.

Then in the Galatasaray game Jenkinson did brilliantly to get past two opposition players and right to the byline, so Giroud darts towards the near post dragging one of the defenders with him, then pulls back into the centre of goal where he's completely unmarked, and Jenkinson lumps it yards over his head to nobody. It was a perfect example of how any good movement he makes goes unrewarded.

As I said in my original post, he should be making the gamble on those missed opportunities when a decent ball does come into the box, but I can't really blame him for being caught on his toes occasionally given how often the crosses simply don't materialise, and the number of times he's expected to be available for the pull-back too.

 

[DanielVale]

Giroud, and I say this quite a lot, seems more comfortable with the ball in the air. He's scored a fair few with his head for the French national squad.

Just re-watched Drogba's second. No wonder he loved playing against us, bit like when Thierry loved playing Chelsea haha