Olivier Giroud joined Arsenal in the summer, basking in the glory of being Ligue 1's top goalscorer in a season where his team Montpellier upset the odds to win the title, and in a season where he made the step-up to wear the national jersey for the first time. Giroud faced the unenviable task of replacing Robin Van Persie, who at times carried an Arsenal team from 17th to 3rd.
Giroud has received criticism from some quarters for basically not being Robin van Persie. It doesn't take a genius to realise they aren't even close to being the same player and the times where Arsenal have played to his strengths, Giroud has looked a danger.
Giroud's obvious strengths are his height and his hold up play, which are two facets of team play you wouldn't normally attribute to Arsenal. Trying to get a player adapt to a style of play at Giroud's age can prove difficult, I'm not saying that Giroud is a bad player I'm saying Arsenal might have bought the wrong player for their system.
Giroud's signing actually reminds me of Liverpool's signing of Andy Carroll (excluding the price), I always thought Carroll was in the wrong team at the wrong time, Carroll and Giroud both thrive on crosses when both teams like to play through the middle. A change of formation to something like 4-4-2 would definitely benefit Giroud but does Wenger envisage building his team around Giroud?
It certainly doesn't seem so, as recent Wenger teams have been built around Cesc Fabregas and Santi Cazorla. Another worry is that Wenger is always reluctant to change a formation to play a certain team, he has always taken the 'Come out and beat us' methodology with line-ups and as the quality of player has reduced recently, the easier it's become for teams to beat us.
I hope for a change in ethos soon, I think Olivier has shown himself to be a capable centre-forward but not one that plows his own furrow, he needs someone up there to help him, hey he's scored more goals than Wayne Rooney this season. Think about if we supplied him with more crosses like Podolski has done in the West Ham and Schalke games...
