Quote Originally Posted by Power_n_Glory View Post
Exactly. It’s a really bad pairing. The question is, do we have the players to make a good pairing? With Giroud, I think we may if played with Sanchez slightly behind him. With Ozil, I always thought someone with pace would do. It’s early days for the Sanchez pairing but I’m a little worried because I haven’t seen anything to suggest they’re on the same wavelength. But I’m prepared to give it more time. If it’s an obvious dud, the only real options left are Perez or Theo.
I really think Sanchez behind Giroud would be worth a try - that looks very similar to his pairing with Griezmann to me, and I think it's where Sanchez plays or Chile?

Or we could put Ramsey behind him? I could see that working well too (and it may even be what we need to get Ramsey's mojo back)?

I could even see Özil and Giroud working well in the same XI, if we put Özil down one of the flanks (whenever I've seen the two of them combine well in the past, it's usually when Özil's gone flying down the left on the break, and fizzed in a low cross for Giroud to hit first-time). They just don't work in that No.10/CF relationship - it highlights the worst parts of both of their games, and wastes all of their strongest attributes. Quite frankly, it's making the two of them look like idiots when they're really not.

With Özil staying at no.10, the solution is more obvious - play him with a more mobile CF! But, as you say, the problem we have is that all of the current options who might fit the bill are half-wingers who would have to learn the CF role, so we'd need to make our peace with that one taking a while to develop. I'm up for it - at least it would feel like we're doing something proactive, and that it might lead to a solution. Anything but more Giroud as CF and Özil behind him!