After missing a few big chances in the France v Serbia game, Olivier Giroud has come under some harsh and frankly unnecessary criticism, but his manager believes everyone has bad days and the player is aware of his poor performance.

France went on to win the match 2-1, thanks to a brace from Blaise Matuidi but Giroud was anything but helpful in the victory, even causing his own fans to boo him off the pitch.

Now his manager, Didier Deschamps, has spoken out on behalf of his player, saying that although he didn’t score, he still had a job to do, and that everyone, even goldenboy Karim Benzema, has bad days at the office.

“He helped during the game,” Deschamps said.

“He got unlucky on a few chances because the goalkeeper made a great save and he got three clear opportunities.

“One was not on target, a header close from the goal-frame. Obviously if he had been more efficient the score would have been much higher.”

The France manager continued, “In his role he made a lot of effort. I always leave a lot of freedom to the three attacking players so he also had to counterbalance.

“He knows about his performance. He’s the first to be sad about his lack of efficiency.

“But it happens sometimes. If it’s not Olivier, it might be Karim Benzema.

“The performance of the entire team remains of a great level.”

Giroud isn’t having the best time at the moment. Even before this performance, he was finding it difficult to score for Arsenal in the league and at the moment, it seems to be a matter of confidence. At least at Arsenal, he’s appreciated for other areas of his play and I’ll eat my hat if I ever see Gooners booing him.