Giroud prepares the shock: the new relay with Ibra is ready

He likes shocks. We find ourselves, we have fun, especially when it is he who has to give them to others. Old teachings. There was a time when Giroud needed “butt kicks”. Word of René Girard, the man who launched it in Montpellier ten years ago. Olivier trained at 70%, he always gave something less, so the coach curried him badly. “If you continue like this, you remain one of many,” he said. And Olivier understood: 14 goals in 2010-11, 25 the following year. He top scorer and Montpellier champion of France for the first time. A matter of shocks. Now Milan need it. And Giroud is applying to give one.

Redemption

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Olivier still worked separately today but should be able to return to the squad for Napoli after a month off. He has been stopped since November 20 due to a muscle injury, he has missed 5 games between the league and the Champions League, won last year with Chelsea. He is hungry, ambition, desire for redemption, also because the season had started in a great way: double at home with Cagliari on the second day, after a string of friendlies in which he had glimpsed excellent things, especially one: breaking the curse of number 9 .

That 9 …

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In Milanello there is a ghost that goes around teasing the wearer of that shirt. After Inzaghi, in fact, whoever dressed her did little or nothing: Lapadula, Higuain, André Silva, Matri, Piatek, Luiz Adriano, Torres, Destro, Mandzukic and many others. Like kryptonite for Clark Kent. Maybe not for Olivier though, who has scored 4 goals in 13 games so far. More than most of its predecessors. “I felt something about that shirt, but I’m not superstitious.” Also because wearing it was destiny. As a child Giroud cheered Sheva and watched Van Basten, Papin and Inzaghi, with the Italian grandmothers who taught him the language.

Numbers

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Napoli is good for him among other things. Against the Azzurri, in 2013-2014, Olivier scored one of the 2 goals with which Arsenal defeated Benitez’s boys in the Champions League group. The season in which Napoli finished third with 12 points, the same as the Gunners and Borussia Dortmund. A mockery. Of that team, only Insigne and Mertens remained, again against the Frenchman seven years later. For Giroud it will be a relay with Ibra once again, the starting Swede and him on the bench: so far he has played 8 games from the start out of 13 appearances, only one for 90 ‘(against Cagliari he was replaced with one minute from the end by Castillejo to get the standing ovation of San Siro). In 5 games he took over from the bench. The score says 748 ‘plays and an average Gazzetta of 5.88. We need a strong shock. He knows how to do it.