3 reasons why Olivier Giroud still can't score in MLS for LAFC | OneFootball

Olivier Giroud's long search for his first MLS goal continued in vain Saturday night in a 1-0 loss at the Houston Dynamo.

Giroud had only one shot in his 69-minute performance before giving way to Nathan Ordaz, who started and scored in LAFC's midweek victory over Inter Miami in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

The 38-year-old who is still less than a year removed from completing a 15-goal Serie A campaign with AC Milan has now gone 788 MLS minutes without scoring. (He did score once each in LAFC's 2024 Leagues Cup final defeat and 2024 U.S. Open Cup final victory.)

So what exactly is going on? Here's three reasons Giroud is still struggling to score in MLS:

LAFC's tactical approach

Giroud has mostly played in ball-dominant teams, and that's not how Cherundolo's LAFC like to play.

In fact, the Black-and-Gold have only had the majority of possession in two of their seven matches so far this season, and Giroud only played 10 minutes across those two games.

That's a considerable clash with his time at with the Rossinieri. AC Milan finished fourth and fifth in possession kept in Serie A across Giroud's two seasons.

Giroud's teammates are also slumping

Giroud obviously isn't playing up to expectation, but in 2025 at last, his attacking teammates are also letting him down.

This year's LAFC squad is creating chances at a far slower rate, averaging just over 10 shots per match so far, down from a bit over 15 per match in 2024.

Nearly every returning player's output has decreased in terms of shot-creating actions. That includes 2023 MLS Golden Boot winner Denis Bouanga, who still leads LAFC at 4.29 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes, nearly a 20% reduction from his rate of 5.10 per 90 last year.

Bouanga and his teammates may simply be exhausted from the number of games they're playing between MLS and Concacaf Champions Cup commitments. Nonetheless, it's another factor restricting Giroud's chances of snapping out of his funk.

Other options

While more has been made of Giroud's continued struggles in 2025 than 2024, the truth is he's played far fewer minutes in the 2025 campaign.

The reason is simple: manager Steve Cherundolo has other options now.

Jeremy Ebobisse wasn't in the squad last season. Nathan Ordaz was only on the fringes of the first team as a 20-year-old in 2024. And while neither are elite MLS strikers right now, they're both competent replacement level players. Giroud has not even been that, meaning he's finding himself on the bench more often than not these days.

So while 2024 was really a story of failing to take chances, 2025 has been as much failing to even see the field. He's only played in four of LAFC's seven league games, starting only two.