Olivier Giroud has admitted that the lack of playing time he has received at Chelsea this season has left him frustrated.
The Frenchman spoke to ESPN about his season so far and conceded that Maurizio Sarri’s sporadic selection of him has been hard to handle. He said:
It’s not me who decides the team, making the starting XI, but obviously, every single player wants to play every single game.
As a competitor obviously I can’t be happy to stay on the bench, but I keep that frustration with me and try to transform it to positive energy to work hard in training.
Giroud has often been rotated by the Chelsea boss, who has struggled to establish a first-choice forward this term. Eden Hazard has often been utilised in a central role, while Alvaro Morata has also been in and out of the team.
It is reported that the Blues are on the verge of completing a loan deal for Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain, indicating that the former Arsenal star could find it yet more difficult to break into the starting line-up soon.
Giroud alluded to his belief that if he had started more consecutive matches during the current campaign, he’d have been more productive in front of goal. The 32-year-old said:
It’s true that every time I play from the start I try to bring something to the team, to play my part. But in these 14 games I started maybe only half of them, so it’s a bit difficult to be consistent in this case. You need to play a few games in a row to be competitive, so that’s what’s a bit difficult in this last month.
