A theme has developed this season for AC Milan whereby only one of the forwards seems to be firing at once, and it is currently Olivier Giroud leading the way.
Today’s La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) writes how Giroud is 36 years old and has been playing a lot this season (16 games in a row without catching his breath), but Stefano Pioli can’t do without him and used him as a starter last night against Salernitana.
After the immense physical and mental effort in London against Spurs many thought Giroud was due a rest but instead he took the field once again from the first minute and responded with a goal, albeit one that wasn’t enough for Milan to earn the three points.
Giroud is the only certainty at this moment in the attacking department as Zlatan Ibrahimovic hasn’t scored since January 2022, Divock Origi scored only against Monza and Sassuolo when the result was well known, Ante Rebic is finding very little playing time and hasn’t scored since October, while Rafael Leao is without a goal for two months.
Luckily for Pioli and Milan, Giroud continues to score and he has been helped with important goals from Theo Hernandez, Brahim Diaz and Junior Messias in the recent period too. However, there is a problem ahead of Saturday.
The Frenchman was booked last night against Salernitana and will therefore be suspended for the game against Udinese so we must see who plays in his place, and they must finally step up to the plate to reassure everyone that the team are not over-reliant on Giroud.
We’ll be in a huuuuge trouble with Udinese as the only player capable of scoring is out.
Giroud is part of the problem. Yes, he can get his head on the end of a cross every couple games but other than that he doesn’t create anything. It will be interesting to see if Ibra starts against Udinese if the offense looks better.
What drug are you on? He is a classic target man. Classic no. 9. He was, and always has been one from the start, Milan knew and everyone knew what they can expect from him. And he has done fantastically well as a no. 9 with what he still has to offer at his old age.
He is not the problem, he was supposed to be backup for main striker anyway.
I think you got it all wrong. A lone center forward isn’t supposed to create anything. He’s the one finishing the attacks. If Giroud were coming down a bit from his position to create chances… Who would be there to finish them?
Giroud is already defending for Leao’s share too so you want him to create too? LOL. The old man is doing already more than should be asked from him.
The creative tasks are on the midfielders, wingers and especially on the quartista.
*trequartista
Watch the difference when Ibra starts. He controls the ball, distributes, creates and scores
He did that in the past but so far he has played less than 90mins and hasn’t really done anything yet as he’s lacking in match fitness. Hopefully he’ll be more useful in Udinese match already though.
Giroud is not part of the problem far from it ,he is a centre forward ,and the service to him last night was diabolical ..Yet he not only scored another goal ,but almost had another from next to nothing with a typical Olivier overhead kick with was only inches over the bar ..Yes he didn’t create much last night ,but tell me who did ..Rafeo leao had an awful game did not create anything at all ,and indeed never looked like scoring..I think Rafeol leao is a class player ,but of late he has been poor ..perhaps it’s all the talk about him been signed for another club ..He is not relaxed on the ball like he used to be ,and seems to be trying to hard ,that said i hope he stays with us !
Ironically I thought substituting him and Olivier Giroud was the wrong thing to do ,as the substitutions did nothing at all ..well Olivier will not play in the next game as he got a stupid unnecessary booking .
So what next ,well I hope Ibrahimovic will get a start from the off ,and that he will get some decent crosses into the box ,he also just like Olivier good strength and heading ability..We must win the next match without our talisman OLIVIER GIROUD.
“Olivier will not play in the next game as he got a stupid unnecessary booking .”
Small correction: “Olivier will not play in the next game as he took the tactical booking to get his card accumulation nullified.”