Yeah, I don't like Mandzukic at all.

No one does. He's a vile character and not the level of striker we need to improve on Giroud, so couldnt care less.

He was either in a better team (Bayern) or a shitter league (German and Croatian). As soon as he wasn't at Bayern and went to La Liga he scored a whopping 12 league goals. So yeah, a shitter version of Giroud is correct.

Considering his career highest ever tally was 26 in all competitions in the absolute shitness of the German league backed by the dominance of Bayern that's not really impressive at all.

Oh and he out scored Giroud by what, a goal in his first season in a proper league? Despite clearly having played a lot more minutes. Like I said Mandzukic is a poor mans Giroud who was lucky to play in such a poor league his whole career.

Edit: what does Lewadonski have to do with anything? No one is talking about him?

A shit version of Giroud because he has nothing outstanding about his game, scores shit goals as well unlike Olly who scores some beauties and belters.

Giroud is shit at creating something for himself, but watching Mandzu doing it you feel sorry for him. Super boring player, I'd lose all hope for us we ever such a limited mug of a player.

Talk about hyperbole...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11688491/Chelsea-hold-talks-over-move-for-Alex-Song.html

Chelsea, City and West Ham all trying to sign Alex Song. Barcelona want a £5m fee but there's been talk of them cancelling his contract and letting him go on a free transfer in order to find someone that will take his 70k a week wages off their books.

Gunner89 wrote:

Clearly having played a lot more minutes? What do you base that on?

He was frozen out by February. Might be down to a questionable character or not but he scores more and has scored more.

By your logic Lahm, Neuer etc. must be crap playing in a "poor league" too.

You can go look up the minutes he's played. He's started 6 more games than him. Which, even if he was subbed off after the first half of every game is still considerable more minutes to score that 1 goal.

No one said anything about Neuer or Lahm. Don't put words in my mouth. You picking goal stats to prove his quality but those numbers, considering the dominance in the teams he's played for and the quality of the league, are not at all impressive.

You cite Lewadonski but if you want you can look at his stats, he's scored more than Mandzukic's highest tally in all but 1 (and that occasion was by one goal) of his last 4 seasons. Mario Gomez scored 39 and 41 goals at Bayern.

Mandzukic could not reach those tallies in his life. Giroud's level isn't what a top striker should be judges and if Mandzukic was getting Giroud numbers in the best team in the world. If you accept that Giroud is an jut a decent striker then that showing is pretty average.

Ricky1985 wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11688491/Chelsea-hold-talks-over-move-for-Alex-Song.html

Chelsea, City and West Ham all trying to sign Alex Song. Barcelona want a £5m fee but there's been talk of them cancelling his contract and letting him go on a free transfer in order to find someone that will take his 70k a week wages off their books.

5m is a very good price for Song.

Does seem cheap, but I'm glad we're not interested.

Mandzukic is better than Giroud. I reckon the only ones who think differently are Arsenal fans who rarely watch him play.

I'm not particularly interested in the goals argument, but it can also be used to illustrate a different point in this case: it doesn't really matter how much your striker scores if he screws up the game for the rest of the team. Gomez scored 41 goals for Bayern and cost them a Champions League trophy. He was an utter donkey. Bayern realised it and bought Mandzukic instead, who scored exactly half as much but was clearly a superior player, and then they went on to win everything they could in the following two seasons with him up front.

He seems to have a screw loose, but he's an excellent player with commendable work rate and the ability to combine in a number of ways with the other attacking players. No point in signing a 29 year old who's falling out with all his managers, but his talent really shouldn't be put into question. What he has achieved on a pitch and what Giroud has achieved is not comparable.

What Mandzukic has achieved on the pitch and Giroud has achieved is not comparable because one of them played for a treble worthy Bayern, so in that sense your post is spot on

i think when people reject someone like Mandzukic they overlook the fact that even if we did not manage to get a top tier striker, we would benefit massively from having another striker who is significantly better than Welbeck and Sanogoals.

Giroud went through a 6 or 7 game spell where he couldn't find the goal if it landed on him. Would've been nice to have a Mandzukic who could come in 2 or 3 games into that drought to try something different.

The one transfer at another club I am (not) looking forward to seeing is the Falcao move. If he regains some of his form, it will be a master stroke for Mourinho. Even if he gets 12-15 goals, that would still be a good season for a team that already has Costa. Falcao was once upon a time the best striker in the world, better than Cavani, Ibra and the rest. Injury is a horrible thing

Claudius wrote:

The one transfer at another club I am (not) looking forward to seeing is the Falcao move. If he regains some of his form, it will be a master stroke for Mourinho. Even if he gets 12-15 goals, that would still be a good season for a team that already has Costa. Falcao was once upon a time the best striker in the world, better than Cavani, Ibra and the rest. Injury is a horrible thing

IMO he was coming back into form & he'd scored 2 in 3 for Monaco at the start of the season, and then 3 in 2 at international level this year prior to the Copa (or visa versa).  It was the ManU period as an anomaly & it remains to be seen if he has the mental fortitude to regain his touch in front of goal.

He has played like shit at the Copa America. No worries he is done, just one more big check for him and Mendes from Mou.

One thing I've noticed about Falcao is that he struggles to separate from defenders now. I wouldn't completely write him off as players like Toni have been able to resurrect their careers from the abyss. If he goes to Chelsea, he'll be more Shevchenko/Torres. I think he'd have more of a chance in Italy/Spain.

On another note, he looks really strange to me w/out long hair. I remember Crespo was better w/ long hair than short hair!

So was Torres.

Gunner89 wrote:

Loylz wrote:

You can go look up the minutes he's played. He's started 6 more games than him. Which, even if he was subbed off after the first half of every game is still considerable more minutes to score that 1 goal.

No one said anything about Neuer or Lahm. Don't put words in my mouth. You picking goal stats to prove his quality but those numbers, considering the dominance in the teams he's played for and the quality of the league, are not at all impressive.

You cite Lewadonski but if you want you can look at his stats, he's scored more than Mandzukic's highest tally in all but 1 (and that occasion was by one goal) of his last 4 seasons. Mario Gomez scored 39 and 41 goals at Bayern.

Mandzukic could not reach those tallies in his life. Giroud's level isn't what a top striker should be judges and if Mandzukic was getting Giroud numbers in the best team in the world. If you accept that Giroud is an jut a decent striker then that showing is pretty average.

As per your blue bit you obviously don't know what you are talking about-

I did look up the minutes-

Giroud-1856
Mandzukic-1932

So by "considerable more minutes" you mean less than 90? Because that's the difference in the minutes both played league football.

Even in his best purple patch he barely beat's Mario's league haul and scores less than Mario overall.

Not sure if you read my post properly but I mentioned Lahm and Neuer specifically for your arguments about a "poor" league.

Mandzukic could not reach those tallies in his life eh? But pep chose to play Mandzukic over Gomez? I wonder why?  And if Mandzukic couldn't reach those tallies neither could Giroud as Giroud scores less than Mandzukic.

Mandzukic also played in a league where you play a maximum of 34 games not 38 games too.

2012/13

Mandzukic
Goals:15
Minutes:1725
Goals/min:115

Giroud
Goals:11
Minutes:2332
Goals/min:212

2013/14

Mandzukic
Goals:18
Minutes:2015
Goals/min: 112

Giroud
Goals:16
Minutes: 3068
Goals/min: 191.75

2014/15

Mandzukic
Goals:12
Minutes: 1932
Goals/min: 161

Giroud: 14
Minutes: 1856
Goals/min: 132.5

Even with a new team and Giroud's best ever purple patch he barely beat's mandzukic leagur hsul once. Shite version of Giroud but who scores more at a faster rate. This is RAWK-esque levels of delusion.

As per your  blue bit you certainly haven't got a clue.

Question, has Mandzukic ever reach Gomez' tallies? Obviously not, so don't see how you could argue that? Has Giroud? No, but then again no one ever said that. But Mandzukic and Gomez' tallies are comparable because they both happened to be playing for the best team in the world (even more so in Mandzukic's case) in a poor league. Once again no one ever mentioned Giroud ever reaching those tallier because he most likely never will.

The only time they've been in comparable leagues and in comparable teams Giroud has outscored Mandzukic if we're going by your league only logic (which coincidentally has always been all competitions when it suits your purpose because otherwise it would show the difference in minutes to be over 700 mins but whatever). Regardless he's scored more goals in less minutes when their respective teams and leagues are at a comparative level. What Mandzukic has done previously is neither here nor there as one is playing for the all conquering Bayern and the other for an Arsenal side struggling for 4th. 

Is Giroud good enough to lead us to the title. No. Is anyone suggesting that? No. But neither is Mandzukic. Cite Bayern and how he won it there if you want but when the support cast is that good compared to your rivals you could put Bendtner in and still win the league. They are both pretty average strikers, just so happened that one has inflated numbers from a poorer league. And even then the numbers are not that much different. Your numbers show that the highest different in their league hauls is 4? Even extrapolate for the extra 4 games he missed out and the difference would be about 6 goals. If you think that's a significant amount considering their respective teams and leagues than fair enough. I don't however.

If we can't get Cavani/Benzema then I'd stick Walcott up front, have Giroud, Alexis and Welbeck as options, and go all out and sign a top class wide forward who has a known track record of scoring.

Cech, Reus and Schneiderlin in this window and I believe we put ourselves in a position where we have a good chance of winning the league.

Klaus wrote:

I'm not particularly interested in the goals argument, but it can also be used to illustrate a different point in this case: it doesn't really matter how much your striker scores if he screws up the game for the rest of the team. Gomez scored 41 goals for Bayern and cost them a Champions League trophy. He was an utter donkey. Bayern realised it and bought Mandzukic instead, who scored exactly half as much but was clearly a superior player, and then they went on to win everything they could in the following two seasons with him up

This is spot on, the over analysing of a players goal scoring record really doesn't tell you much at all. Particularly when the difference is only a few goals

Of course they could win Bundesliga with Bendtner up front. They outplayed City with 10 men at the Etihad like they were with a man more themselves. Bayern are heads and shoulders above everyone in Germany.

That said, I don't understand how Bundesliga or any other league apparently is much worse than PL. Those times are over, the PL has the most money, but it's being spent on absolute gobshite as usual, especially on overpriced English players.

Irish gunner wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11688491/Chelsea-hold-talks-over-move-for-Alex-Song.html

Chelsea, City and West Ham all trying to sign Alex Song. Barcelona want a £5m fee but there's been talk of them cancelling his contract and letting him go on a free transfer in order to find someone that will take his 70k a week wages off their books.

5m is a very good price for Song.

Sad that the only reason Chelsea and City would be interested in Alex Song is because he qualifies as a home grown player.  Absolutely disgusting that both these teams have no home grown players of their own.

Kike Marin** ‏@Kike_Marin_  23m23 minutes ago
@Arsenal Wenger doesn't work with Jorge Mendes. Normal, portuguese agent is a pirate. Jackson Martínez (Porto) the latest example.

seems to be common knowledge wenger wont ever sign a mendes client. said this last year when there was a clamour for falcao. pretty sure mendes shafted wenger in the cristiano ronaldo deal by shopping him to united after a verbal agreement was in place with us, and its been frosty ever since. it alienates us from a huge chunk of the market, but im actually not that fussed. his clients price always seems to be inflated.

Chili Palmer wrote:

Of course they could win Bundesliga with Bendtner up front. They outplayed City with 10 men at the Etihad like they were with a man more themselves. Bayern are heads and shoulders above everyone in Germany.

That said, I don't understand how Bundesliga or any other league apparently is much worse than PL. Those times are over, the PL has the most money, but it's being spent on absolute gobshite as usual, especially on overpriced English players.

all of the top 4 teams in England this season would have finished in at least 2nd place in Bundesliga, and maybe even the top 5. and the story continues as you go down. it's a weak league relative to England. the only thing holding England back is an inability to compete with the vast legal and illegal riches of Real and Barca

Claudius wrote:

Chili Palmer wrote:

Of course they could win Bundesliga with Bendtner up front. They outplayed City with 10 men at the Etihad like they were with a man more themselves. Bayern are heads and shoulders above everyone in Germany.

That said, I don't understand how Bundesliga or any other league apparently is much worse than PL. Those times are over, the PL has the most money, but it's being spent on absolute gobshite as usual, especially on overpriced English players.

all of the top 4 teams in England this season would have finished in at least 2nd place in Bundesliga, and maybe even the top 5. and the story continues as you go down. it's a weak league relative to England. the only thing holding England back is an inability to compete with the vast legal and illegal riches of Real and Barca

How do you figure that out? Considering the seasons they've just had, I'd fancy any of Leverkusen, Gladbach, and Wolfsburg to beat ManU, quite easily tbh. Maybe over a course of a season squad depth would show, though.

Dortmund who finished 7th or so, smashed us to pieces in Germany. I don't think there's as huge difference between the leageus as people make it out.

The PL teams are tactically rubbish, and they're getting found out time and time again in Europe. If we want to make claims such as the best league in the world, it needs to be shown in Europe, and that isn't the case at the moment, far from.