Arsene Wenger would use Olivier Giroud as a goalkeeper in an
emergency, the Arsenal boss has revealed.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has
revealed Olivier Giroud would likely end up wearing the goalkeeper gloves in an
emergency.
Petr Cech has been superb for
Arsenal this season, but Wenger feels France striker Giroud could go in between
the sticks if the former Chelsea keeper got sent off and he had used all his
substitutes.
"Who would go in goal if we
got a goalkeeper sent off? That would give me a big problem, because I haven't
thought about it. Usually it's the central defenders or the strikers,"
Wenger told Arsenal's official website.
"I had George Weah at Monaco
and he was a fantastic goalkeeper in training. Maybe a guy who has played
basketball in his youth would be good, he would be used to using his hands.
"In our team I don't know
what I would do, it was more of a problem before when you didn’t have a
substitute goalkeeper. It can still happen late in a game though. I would have
to make an instinctive decision, maybe it would be Giroud."
Wenger has been delighted with
Cech's impact at Emirates Stadium, adding: "The peak age for a goalkeeper
is 28 to 36 or 37.
"That is where you can
absorb the bullets, you have the experience and you still have the physical
quality to perform.
"For a footballer it is
always important to have that balance between experience and physical
potential. Unfortunately we need our body to express what we know. Our body
allows us to perform more in a goalkeeper's position compared to a striker's.
"Experience is probably the
most important quality for a goalkeeper. The problem is that to get the
experience, you need the quality, it’s a vicious circle You need to play.
"Cech played when he was
very young, and [Gianluigi] Buffon too was playing at 17. They had the luck to
get into the first team, to gather the experience and be good enough to stay
there."
