What do I know about Giroud? Well quite frankly not a lot. He spent this season with surprise Ligue 1 winners Montpellier playing a total of 40 games and scoring an impressive 24 goals in league and cup. Standing at nearly 6'3 hes a giant of striker and has won the highest percentage of aerial balls this is the highest in all 5 of the top leagues this season. I'm sure I've done what plenty of Arsenal fans have this morning which is as always gone onto youtube and searched for videos of him.
From what I can tell and must say I have never seen him play so don't hold me to this. He's certainly not the quickest but he looks to me like a poacher with a fair few of his goals coming from following the ball in (something all good strikers should do). That said his technique looks superb and although he lacks pace his timing seems to be impeccable. He certainly looks like he can finish.
His height is obvious but unlike other he seems to be able to actually head the ball, I'm always amazed by the sheer number of tall strikers who either can't head or can't jump but this doesn't seem to be a problem for him.
OK now that I've gone over the bits that make everyone very excited, in the name of being fair I need to make some points. Firstly unless Wenger knows something we don't I can't see how we're going to be able to play 4-3-3 without leaving a high profile player out. We have 4 international players to fit into 3 places: RVP, Walcott, Podolski and now Giroud. Assuming he plays that formation and I know its good to have depth but will any of those players be happy playing every other game, I'm sure the 2 lads won't and Walcott certainly isn't going to be. RVP unquestionably has to play.
What about 4-4-2? OK so Walcott and Podolski on the wing, Giroud and RVP upfront. So then who loses out in the midfield: Wilshere whose our creative talent? Arteta who we just signed? Song who sits infront of the defence? Rosicky who just signed a new deal? that's without mentioning Ramsey. I genuinely can't see how it will work without shifting some players but I wouldn't want to lose any of those.
Also the last international striker we signed from the French league who was good in the air turned out to be Chamakh so...more to come soon.
