Olivier Giroud has managed to stay out of the spotlight, but his first half of the season has been anything but good. The Lille striker has had a string of poor performances and has failed to score, despite a promising start to the season.
Last August, when Olivier Giroud started the season by scoring two goals in his first two matches with LOSC, there was immediate talk of a surprise return to the French national team for the top scorer in Les Bleus’ history (57 goals). Admittedly, it was premature to open the door to such a prospect. But now, that time seems very far away. Since then, the Lille centre forward has hardly scored at all and has had a string of lacklustre performances at the forefront of the northern team’s attack, which is doing better without the 39-year-old centre forward.
Three goals since the end of August
The statistics are brutal. Giroud has scored only five goals in 23 matches in all competitions this season, including just three in 21 matches since the end of August. His record is poor, especially since two of those goals came in one game, against Paris FC (4-2) on 23rd November, ending a two-month drought that began after his winning goal against Brann (2-1) at the end of September in the Europa League and lasted nine games.
The former Arsenal striker failed to capitalise on his brace to kick-start a new dynamic. Still ghostly against Lyon (1-2) on Sunday in the French Cup, Giroud has not scored in eight games and is once again approaching two months of competition without scoring a single goal. It is difficult for LOSC to achieve its objectives and perform offensively with a striker who does not score and does not set up others to score either (one assist in all competitions).
Igamane, a much greater impact than Giroud
Even more striking, and it is unlikely to be a coincidence, Giroud has only missed two matches since the start of the season. In those two games, Lille scored a total of 13 goals, in Lorient (7-1) and against Metz (6-1), and his direct rival, Hamza Igamane, stood out on both occasions. The return of the Moroccan, currently at the Africa Cup of Nations, is likely to reshuffle the deck.
Since the start of the season, Igamane has had half as much playing time as Giroud, but his contribution to the game and his statistics are much higher. While the former French international is decisive every 249 minutes on average (5 goals and 1 assist in 1,494 minutes), the Lion of the Atlas is decisive every 68 minutes (9 goals and 2 assists in 748 minutes). The roles could therefore be reversed. Nothing could be more logical, when the main protagonist is 39 years old and already has a magnificent career behind him.
