Giroud: Give me more crosses and we want Cahill to stay

Olivier Giroud is rueing the lack of wing play that hampered his chance of scoring during the 0-0 draw against West Ham on Sunday but believes Chelsea has enough quality and that includes keeping want away Gary Cahill, to beat Liverpool tomorrow night in the Carabao Cup.

French hitman Giroud said of the dour draw at the London Stadium: “It was frustrating. As a team we didn’t succeed in finding the solution.

“We tried too much to play inside and against a strong defence like that.

“It was very hard to combine, especially in the last 30 yards.

“Maybe we should have gone a bit more on the side and put in more crosses into the box.

“We are aware about that and we will work on it. We want to bounce back as soon as possible."

Giroud will be keen to vent that frustration against Liverpool at Anfield tomorrow night and at the Bridge on Sunday in the Premier League.

“I keep a positive energy for the next game,” he said.

“I always want to take this frustration to transform it into a positive thing for the next game.

"We need to show team character after the West Ham game. But there is nothing better to play the team at the top of the League. It will be a good game, a good test.

"We want to win every single game. The coach will obviously make some changes. But we have many players with quality and we have a good team. We want to be strong and show them that it won’t be easy for them at Anfield. Maybe they will make changes too.

"We want to keep the confidence high and come back to London with good momentum and start again a winning run.

"It is going to be the best preparation for the Premier League game to win there so we’re not going to lose the game and just focus on the other one."

Giroud does not suggest that the late return from Greece following their 1-0 win against PAOK on the Thursday as the reason for the sluggish performance.

"I’m not saying it’s a tactical problem. Sometimes as players we have to recognise the best way to put them in difficulties. Sometimes we rushed our game and not been patient or maybe not enough pace in our game.

"Now our opponents are starting to know Chelsea well so we need to bring something else. Maybe we need to give a bit more on the pitch as well.

"It’s a tough time, but this is when you see the men and we have to show stronger character and response in the next game.

"Obviously when you play in the week,you play every three days, we had a long trip and it was tiring because we had to stay there. And when we came back we had to train straight away.

"It’s not the best, but we were aware about that and we have quality in our group. We have quantity as well, we have very good competition, very good players. We are not hiding behind that (Europa League trip being the reason).

"We are happy to play in the Europa League and want to win it as well. It was a good result (in PAOK) even though we could have scored more goals. We are not hiding behind the fact we play two games in a week. We have to do more and we are aware about that."

Giroud has ousted misfiring Alvaro Morata as Sarri's first choice, but the modest striker does not want to see it that way.

"I don’t like to say that I’m ahead of another player, that I’m in first position. I have a fair competition with Alvaro, I played well in the last Premier League game but this one was not my best one.

"That’s why I was a bit frustrated and disappointed to be substituted in the 65th minute but the coach made his choice and you have to respect it. I will transform my frustration in a good way in the next game. Alvaro and myself have to score goals for the team so we need to find the net, hopefully this week, to help the team reach our targets.

“Now we are going to look at what went wrong against West Ham. Even though we didn’t do so well, we could have won the game at the end of it.

“It’s disappointing we lost two points, West Ham were happy with this draw. We have two big games against Liverpool this week we want to show our strength, our character.”

Much of the character of the side in the past eight years has come from centre-back Cahill, who, last week, lifted the lid on his personal turmoil at not featuring under Maurizio Sarri - ironically he was a used substitute at the weekend and suggesting he will seek a move away from Stamford Bridge in January.

Giroud said of the defender: “We need him. We have a lot of good players who can play in the starting 11.

“The problem is we have five centre-backs and the coach made his choice.

“Gary is not in a good position because it is quite tough for him, he doesn’t play so much. I understand that he wants to play more.

“At one stage I was the same and I didn’t like that. We are happy when we are on the pitch. I think his heart is still in Chelsea and hopefully we will keep him because we need him. He needs to be happy, that is the main thing.

“But I hope he stays because he is important for us.

“He is one of the faces of Chelsea.”