Moving Target – Olivier Giroud

After Arsenal secured the club-record signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the Gunners allowed French striker Olivier Giroud to join Chelsea for an undisclosed fee, reportedly worth around £18 million.

The 31-year-old put pen to paper on an 18-month contract with the champions and, upon his arrival at Stamford Bridge, outlined some of the attributes he will bring to his new club:

“My hold-up play, my link-up play and my efficiency in front of goal. My mental strength as well is good, because you go through difficulties sometimes in a season and you have to be strong and try to keep the strong team cohesion.”

The History

Joining Grenoble in 1999 at the age of 13, Giroud progressed to make his professional debut for the club in 2005.

Following a loan spell with Istres in the French third tier in 2007/08, he then joined Ligue 2 side Tours ahead of the 2008/09 campaign.

Giroud enjoyed a productive two-year spell, with his 36 goals in 67 matches helping to earn a move to Ligue 1 outfit Montpellier in July 2010.

It was there where his career really began to take off, with the highlight coming in the 2011/12 season when his league-leading 21 goals and 12 assists helped Montpellier to their first ever Ligue 1 title.

His performances convinced Arsene Wenger to buy the striker in June 2012 for a fee of around £12 million, and he totalled a reasonable 11 goals and five assists in 34 league outings in his maiden league campaign.

He scored 16 league goals in both the 2013/14 and 2015/16 seasons and was a part of a squad that won three FA Cups.

But with Wenger using Alexis Sanchez as a lone striker for parts of the last campaign, and following the arrival of Alexandre Lacazette in the summer, Giroud fell down the pecking order.

He made his international debut for France against U.S.A in November 2011 and has scored 29 goals in 68 matches for his country.

The Prospects

Giroud’s move to Chelsea followed the decision to allow Michy Batshuayi to join Borussia Dortmund on loan until the end of the season.

The Frenchman is clearly competing with Alvaro Morata to lead the Blues’ attack. That would see Eden Hazard play up in support in a 3-5-1-1, or as one of two mobile attackers flanking Conte’s prefered striker in the more familiar 3-4-2-1

The possibility of pairing both Morata and Giroud seems remote, although Conte regularly used a 3-5-2 during his time in charge at Juventus.

Morata has been sidelined with a back injury in recent weeks and has again been ruled out of Monday’s trip to Watford. That injury setback may even be at the root of a recent slump in form – the Spaniard has failed to score in his last six appearances in all competitions.

And after a series of glaring misses – in particular in the Gameweek 22 draw at Arsenal – Morata appears to be suffering from a crisis of confidence. Even on his return to contention, there are real doubts as to the likely pecking order with Giroud now on board.

Morata is more mobile and able to run the channels while the Frenchman tends to occupy the penalty area and feed off service, only dropping deep to link the play.

Indeed, Giroud’s hold-up play is arguably superior, and his physical presence in the Chelsea forward line will be more akin to that of Diego Costa. That should compliment the pace and trickery of Hazard, Willian and Pedro as runners.

And while Morata’s aerial threat is considerable, Giroud is also a powerful and potent presence in that respect.

The France international has won an impressive 56.1% of his aerial duels this season, compared to 49.3% for Morata.

The fact only Tottenham Hotspur (541) and Southampton (539) have made more crosses than Chelsea (519) this season suggests that the Blues are already set up to play to Giroud’s strengths.

Indeed, in Antonio Conte’s press conference on Friday, the Blues manager confirmed that he had specified the type of player he was looking to acquire, and that Giroud ticked the box.

“I asked for this type of player with these characteristics to my club and the club gave me the opportunity to work with Giroud, so I’m very happy.”

But, like Morata, there have previously been question marks surrounding Giroud’s profligacy in front of goal.

This season, he has a shot accuracy of 33.3%, which is significantly inferior to Morata (44.1%).

But that is based on a small sample of 374 minutes. Over the 2016/17 campaign, Giroud registered an impressive 51.3% over 1194 minutes made up of 11 starts.

Indeed, statistically, Giroud has excelled in recent campaigns.

Only Harry Kane (52.7%) could top his shot accuracy in 2016/17 and, over that season, the Frenchman ranked fourth for minutes per goal with a strike every 99.5 minutes. Incredibly, he’s bettered that this season with four goals scored – registering a goal every 93.5 minutes.

Intriguingly, we know that Conte considers the role of a lone striker to be a difficult position to master. On blooding Morata earlier in the season, he made it clear that the young Spaniard needed time to adjust.

“A striker for me is a really important role. It’s very important to understand what position I want [them to play] during the game. This role is more difficult to adapt than the other roles.”

And when Morata hit his recent dry spell, Conte was also quick to point out that the 25-year-old was not accustomed to being first choice, playing week after week.

“Don’t forget for Alvaro it’s his first season playing regularly. He didn’t always play with Real Madrid and Juventus. You have to know this. I’m very happy with his commitment and the way he’s playing.”

It is only speculation at this point, but Giroud could have been identified as a solution to take Morata out of the firing line and be given more time to adjust.

Certainly, when asked if Giroud can be more than back-up, Conte was quick to point out the qualities of his new signing.

“For Giroud, we are talking about an international player with a lot of experience. A player that plays for the French national team and is 31 years old, so we are not talking about a young player. For this reason, our expectation is that he will help us.”

The Chelsea manager went on to indicate that Giroud is unlikely to feature in the starting line-up at Watford on Monday, with the striker still edging back to speed following recent injury.

But we should perhaps expect Conte to spring a surprise, with Giroud set to train with the squad again over the weekend.

If he does feature and can maintain his rate of goals of recent campaigns, then Giroud will surley stake a claim to be Chelsea’s principle striker.

With a price tag of just 8.2 in Fantasy Premier League, compared to 10.4 for Morata, that scenario could prove hugely significant for our seasons.

Further Reference

Olivier Giroud Wikipedia

Olivier Giroud Transfer Markt Page

Olivier Giroud You Tube Highlights