YAMA Scouting Report: Olivier Giroud

Joel Pereira is a guest writer (we hope to be a full time writer) who is a big fan of Ligue 1 out of Toronto Canada. His first feature for us is a scouting report on the newest Gunner (reportedly) Oliver Giroud.  You can follow Joel on twitter @joel_pereira. –  DAG

Standing at 192cm this Chambery born striker has gone from relative obscurity to now being touted as one of the finest strikers to play in Ligue 1. Oliver Giroud has had a meteoric rise from playing in Ligue 2 to now being a fully capped international. It’s one that bears a similar resemblance to that of a former Tours player,best friend and current Arsenal defender; Laurent Koscielny.

Giroud is in simplest terms a pure number 9 who combines his physical stature with directness in play. He has excelled at leading the line in a primarily 4-2-3-1 formation employed by R. Girard at Montpellier. Primarily left-footed he has shown an ability to score with both feet. He is a no-nonsense striker whose directness is comparable to Arsenal’s other summer signing (so far), Podolski. What will also excite Gooners is that Giroud is not tap-in shy and will constantly react to rebounds to score scrappy goals that have not been a recent fixture of Arsene-ball.

One of Giroud’s best qualities is his directness in front of goal. He plays the game like a classic striker in that he is always looking to shoot and as a result averaged the most shots per game at 4.5 shots/game in Ligue 1 last term. A skill also possessed by Giroud (and highlighted by both Blanc and Girard) has been his ability to play with his back to goal and has excelled at transitioning from receiving the ball, turning and taking the quick one time shot.

Giroud also excels at using his physical stature to link up play. It may come as no surprise that currently Giroud has the highest aerial duel success rate (at 70%) of any striker playing for a top four team in Europe. One of Montpellier’s greatest successes this term has been the ability to use Giroud as a target man to hold up the ball allowing either of the three-man midfield to join in the attack. Tactically this has been imperative to Montpellier success, as they have constantly been outnumbered in midfield thus relying heavily on Giroud’s ability to control long balls and link up and/or set up goals for his teammates. As a result Giroud has been also able to amass an assist tally of 9 ranking him the highest for forwards in France (if one was to exclude J. Menez of PSG who has played as a modified AMR/FW).

Giroud is not without flaws however and one of the biggest flaws in his game is his lack of versatility in forward positions. Giroud simply leads the attack but you would be hard pressed to see him constantly interchange between the midfield or on the flanks. While it’s unfair to pin the lack of movement entirely on him as the formation employed by Girard restricted much movement (the three-man midfield of Camara, Belhanda and Utaka interchanged among them however). There will however be a general concern as to how would he able to integrate himself in a 4-3-3 system at Arsenal where movement among the front three is key.

Giroud’s heading ability has also been called into question as for a physical forward has only scored 2 goals last term in the league through headers. There are also concerns over his low pass completion percentage (67% for 2011/12), which underwhelms especially when compared to the high passing completion rates at Arsenal. While a case could be made that as a lone striker his assist rate and shots per game should outweigh this concern, his passing has always been one of the weaker areas of his game even when compared to others playing in similar positions (M. Gomez has a more healthier completion rate of 77.2%).

Critics praising Giroud also do so with caution due to most fearing that at 25 he might have just had his single breakout season and that it would be a one-off. They believe that he has set himself a bar that he may never meet again. Some also fear his move to Arsenal could expose his inability to switch on the wings or drop back ‘in the hole’ to support the flanks or orchestrate forward plays. There are also concerns that Olivier lacks international playing time and has not been tested at the highest level outside of France and thus might find the rigours of Champions League football taxing.

The only way to answer these concerns definitively would be wait and see how he integrates himself at Arsenal but as a reference his recent performances for France should be considered to get a look into how he would fit into an Arsenal system as Blanc employs a similar system in the national setup. His recent performance against Iceland in a nutshell displayed all of his positive attributes where he lead the line after coming in for Ben Arfa and Benzema dropping behind him into a more central, creative role. Giroud linked up well while also attempted and successfully completed five passes, all within the penalty area with two directly resulting in goals showing that he can successfully lead the line in a similar setup at Arsenal.

With reports in the media suggesting that Arsenal are close to or already have had a £9.7m bid accepted for Giroud which if true is an absolute bargain for a player of his quality. While it would be unfair to expect a 20+ goal season from him in his first year as he settles into the physical nature of the PL, he has in my opinion the tools required to succeed in a league as demanding as the PL.

For those worried that signing Giroud would mark the end of RVP’s stay at Arsenal would be advised not to. Giroud should instead be seen as the addition of a pure #9 that will compliment RVP tactically and help reduce the goal-scoring burden that is currently placed on our captain. He will give Arsenal more options moving forward allowing RVP the opportunity to play wide, forward or in his natural ‘Bergkamp’ role. While Arsenal’s style of play has for the last 15 years moved away ‘hoofing’ the ball, having a strong target man now adds more impetus on the crossing game while also giving Arsenal that ‘Plan B’ that is has lacked over the last couple of years. Do not however expect Giroud to play on the wings, as it is not a position he is or will be comfortable in.

While it may be true that Giroud could develop and become a long term replacement for RVP, Gooners should be excited at the prospect of having a strong, physical striker who looks set on leading the Arsenal line for years to come.