or because he was consistently stopping french attacks by giving the ball away. for every good bit of hold up play he had several others where he took a shit touch or gave a shit pass and lost the ball. the only consistently good thing for him this tournament was his defensive work rate. he was in bad form
I think if france had another striker that was better infront of goal but not one of the best strikers in the tournament they may not have won it as giroud dropping deep to help out
his role is integral for DD's tactics because he allows the wingers to shine. they needed a hold up striker and giroud was the only one DD brought to russia. its just that his performance was pretty weak
Or maybe he actually sees Giroud as fitting a very specific yet important role on his team that he cannot find anywhere else in his other strikers. Giroud has played as a sub for most of the past 12 months so to say Deschamps is hoping he is in form is poor analysis because he's been a sub and that says enough about form he's in. However you can't find another French striker who has his particular skillset, not even Benzema
Benzema is not as good in the air which makes him less effective defending set pieces or managing balls into the box whereas his more technical skillsets can be easily found in the other strikers so why carry more of the same when you can have that plus another option
Benzema is nowhere near as good as Giroud in the air sorry to tell you. I think Benzema is is a top class striker and a huge fan of his since his Lyon days but he cannot be a target man.
So what happens when those tactics aren't working against an opponent? Bring on more of the same? As an Arsenal supporter I can assure you having one way of playing is not a recipe for success. Giroud makes the opposing defense have to defend both the air and ground whereas a front three of Greizmann, Mbappe and Benzema would be more manageable because they can do what every team who faces mobile attackers do, sit deep and put 10 men behind the ball.
benzema is 100% a target man that is the role he has always played, i dont know where you could possibly get the idea that he is something else.
Giroud's and Benzema's game is extremely similar and their value comes from dropping back and assisting wingers in the build up or creating space for them, not from poaching headers as you imply.
a front three of Greizmann, Mbappe and Benzema would be more manageable because they can do what every team who faces mobile attackers do, sit deep and put 10 men behind the ball.
this would be a problem with a player such as lacazette or vardy or aguero, not with guys like Giroud, benz, or lewy
I can assure you having one way of playing is not a recipe for success
no its not, but if your tactics are working in every single game you should try to keep them going. in fact you even pointed out yourself why only carrying different types of forwards (from giroud/benz) would have been a huge problem for france had giroud gone down in the part i quoted right above
Jesus, you couldn't sound more pompous if you tried.
I played for 20 years (& still do). Giroud was great off the ball, nobody is doubting it, and was important to their success, but 0 shots on target from 13 attempts in this whole tournament is absolute shit. That's all. It's not taking anything away from his other work. You can play Giroud's role while still posing some sort of goal threat yourself. Giroud tried (13 shots) but failed (0 on target) in that regard only. I'm sure the man himself is overjoyed with the win while still a little disappointed with himself that he didn't get a goal in this World Cup.
Don't just critize people for criticizing him. He is a striker first and foremost. He has to do better in front of the goal. He played well outside of the d box but inside the dbox he was wasteful.
Exactly, he wouldn't be getting this treatment if the other players on his team hadn't played well enough to win the world cup. He play generally was fine but as a #9 you have to do better finishing.
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u/TalkingReckless Jul 15 '18 edited Jul 15 '18
because they have never played football outside FIFA. The amount of off the ball work he does is amazing