Ozil - Do we need him?

[Özim]

Mkhitaryan flopped at Utd after one season of putting up unimpressive 'Ozil type' statistics for Jose Mourinho and you've written him off. Debut season he gets 11 goals and 5 assists despite Mourinho tinkering with his playing position and playing time.

Last season Ozil got 5 goals with 14 assists.

Last season for Mkh - 5 goals with 12 assist. Remember he played for us and Utd last season. Two different systems and under a manager that had zero faith in him and spent less time on the pitch than Ozil last season.

But you still rate Ozil. Ok.

I just don't really rate Mkhitaryan s talent, he's too lightweight IMO we already had Ozil so why get him as well and he's almost 30 on top of that, at least Ozil has shown wht he can do in the past, Mkhitaryan hasn't really done a massive amount in his career IMO.

I'd personally have sold him and got Gelson Martins in, we can't accommodate him and Ozil and I'd rather have Ozil who is pound for pound more creative overall.

I'm basing my opinion of Ozil on what he's done for Germany, Real Madrid and Werder Bremen, on that basis he's got huge talent and the question is whether the manager can tap into that.

[Özim]

Article about Ozil

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/the-b...u1ie5wjeodqhmk

[Power n Glory]

I'm not even reading. That 'too good for Arsenal' narrative has to stop from Arsenal fans. It's embarrassing and especially when you say Mkhitaryan flopped at Man Utd after one season and won't even give him a chance.

This sort of discourse doesn't happen with World Class players and not over such a long period of their careers. Players like Giroud, Walcott and Xhaka need managers that can 'tap into' their potential.

[Özim]

I'm not even reading. That 'too good for Arsenal' narrative has to stop from Arsenal fans. It's embarrassing and especially when you say Mkhitaryan flopped at Man Utd after one season and won't even give him a chance.

This sort of discourse doesn't happen with World Class players and not over such a long period of their careers. Players like Giroud, Walcott and Xhaka need managers that can 'tap into' their potential.

Mkhitaryan isn't even World class, he did nothing at Man U and has done nothing with us, I don't even think he was that good at Dortmund to be honest, so as far as I'm concerned he's done very little in his career and if we sold him I honestly wouldn't care.

Ozil is proven, I know you've never liked him and go out of your way to criticise him, but the facts are the guy is one of our few World Class players, sure he's not been at his best but he's still got bags of ability we're just not getting the most out of him, but that might change under Emery, so in my opinion it's best to wait and see.

Giroud, Walcott and Xhaka have no potential, they're bang average players, you can't tap into anything, best thing we ever did was sell 2 out of those 3 duds, just 1 left now and hopefully we get rid ASAP (personally think that should have been done in the summer), I don't even know why you brought them into this tbh, you defended Walcott for 10 odd years despite him rarely ever turning up, in the end he never made it and had to be sold on and he was far worse than Ozil and also ended up being paid a shedload in relative terms.

[Power n Glory]

Alright, Zim. We'll never agree on this.

[Power n Glory]

https://le-grove.co.uk/

In other news, Mikhi, is going hard at the doubters.

“Everyone has their own opinion. We know very well what we are playing for and how we have to play.

“If we are just going to kick the ball up front and wait for God to give us a chance to score, it’s not necessary.

“The only thing we have to do is to work hard, believe in ourselves and use the chances we create to score goals.”

I like his mindset. It’s interesting how many people are questioning whether he can play in the same side as Ozil. Matt on the pod went hard on this one. I’ve heard people say the same about Ozil and Ramsey as well. Then you start thinking about how sensitive the Ozil ecosystem has to be to function.

Remember last season when we were all purring over Ozil feeding Lacazette? Then that didn’t work out. Then we were all purring over Ozil and Auba, and that didn’t work out. I’m kind of getting a little bit worried about the German and his ability to function at Arsenal.

I see this season going one of two ways, he’s either going to click and make the magic happen, or he’s going to fade away like Wayne Bridge and Winston Bogarde did. The scene is set for a tap out. His rep has been soiled in Germany, he’s just landed a mega contract at Arsenal, his new manager is asking him to do things he’d rather not do. I hope I’m wrong and he comes back in from the cold, but it’s not looking good at this second.

[IBK]

I'm not even reading. That 'too good for Arsenal' narrative has to stop from Arsenal fans. It's embarrassing and especially when you say Mkhitaryan flopped at Man Utd after one season and won't even give him a chance.

This sort of discourse doesn't happen with World Class players and not over such a long period of their careers. Players like Giroud, Walcott and Xhaka need managers that can 'tap into' their potential.

I read it. And I have 2 problems with the article's arguments. First, while I accept both that football is a team game where a superstar can make less of a difference than, say basketball, and that Arsenal's main issues for years have been in defence, it is nonsense to suggest effectively that a world class football player cannot achieve great things individually. Look at Ronaldo in the World Cup, or the difference that the likes of de Bruyne; Salah; Hazard; Kane make to their respective teams - not just as team players but in their own right. There is a reason why strikers and forward players are the best paid in any team - their individual skills lead to goals, and generally speaking, the better they are the more goals they score/create.


Second, the article effectively exonerates Ozil from responsibility in an underperforming team. I too am frustrated by the 'too good for Arsenal' argument. Even our most vociferous detractors would struggle to argue that we do not have good players. We may have slipped out of the top four, but we are hardly a championship team, and I refuse to accept that the team is preventing our best paid player from shining. The wages Ozil commands mean that we should rightly expect more from him. Yes his assists recors is impressive, but does he, and has he lived up to his reputation? The answer is clearly no. We have simply not seen enough star quality from him consistently, and while I am prepared to give him a chance under a new manager, the current evidence is that he is not the game-changing player that we are paying for. It is perfectly reasonable to expect this of him whatever our shambolic situation at the back.

[IBK]

I read it. And I have 2 problems with the article's arguments. First, while I accept both that football is a team game where a superstar can make less of a difference than, say basketball, and that Arsenal's main issues for years have been in defence, it is nonsense to suggest effectively that a world class football player cannot achieve great things individually. Look at Ronaldo in the World Cup, or the difference that the likes of de Bruyne; Salah; Hazard; Kane make to their respective teams - not just as team players but in their own right. There is a reason why strikers and forward players are the best paid in any team - their individual skills lead to goals, and generally speaking, the better they are the more goals they score/create.


Second, the article effectively exonerates Ozil from responsibility in an underperforming team. I too am frustrated by the 'too good for Arsenal' argument. Even our most vociferous detractors would struggle to argue that we do not have good players. We may have slipped out of the top four, but we are hardly a championship team, and I refuse to accept that the team is preventing our best paid player from shining. The wages Ozil commands mean that we should rightly expect more from him. Yes his assists recors is impressive, but does he, and has he lived up to his reputation? The answer is clearly no. We have simply not seen enough star quality from him consistently, and while I am prepared to give him a chance under a new manager, the current evidence is that he is not the game-changing player that we are paying for. It is perfectly reasonable to expect this of him whatever our shambolic situation at the back.

...and Giroud delivered more relative to his price tag than Ozil ever has...

[Power n Glory]

I read it. And I have 2 problems with the article's arguments. First, while I accept both that football is a team game where a superstar can make less of a difference than, say basketball, and that Arsenal's main issues for years have been in defence, it is nonsense to suggest effectively that a world class football player cannot achieve great things individually. Look at Ronaldo in the World Cup, or the difference that the likes of de Bruyne; Salah; Hazard; Kane make to their respective teams - not just as team players but in their own right. There is a reason why strikers and forward players are the best paid in any team - their individual skills lead to goals, and generally speaking, the better they are the more goals they score/create.


Second, the article effectively exonerates Ozil from responsibility in an underperforming team. I too am frustrated by the 'too good for Arsenal' argument. Even our most vociferous detractors would struggle to argue that we do not have good players. We may have slipped out of the top four, but we are hardly a championship team, and I refuse to accept that the team is preventing our best paid player from shining. The wages Ozil commands mean that we should rightly expect more from him. Yes his assists recors is impressive, but does he, and has he lived up to his reputation? The answer is clearly no. We have simply not seen enough star quality from him consistently, and while I am prepared to give him a chance under a new manager, the current evidence is that he is not the game-changing player that we are paying for. It is perfectly reasonable to expect this of him whatever our shambolic situation at the back.

I couldn't bring myself to read it. Such articles are disrespectful to our club and the current players we have at our club. Aubameyang and Lacazette are two very good strikers with the speed and power to get into position but are starved of service from Ozil. There is no partnership or understanding. Why? It's not as if he's still playing with Giroud or Welbeck. Even when we had Sanchez, he hardly assisted Sanchez. When Sanchez moved to the striker position, it was Sanchez that helped Ozil have his best goal scoring season of his entire career. Some of the passes I saw from Sanchez to split a defence was what I'd expect from Ozil. I just don't get why there is no partnership with anyone on the team. Is he not seeing the runs or can he not find the space? We've surrounded him with the right players and we play the style of football that best suits him. Even in games where we're on the back foot and having to play on the counter, Ozil has no effect on the game. You'd at least expect him to be able to unleash a pass that sets our attackers off like we'd used to see from Cesc who always look to anticipate a run from Theo or whoever.



We've had star quality players here at Arsenal and despite we've played and performed over the course of the season, RVP, Cesc, late Arsenal Henry, Sanchez...they'd all have plenty of games where they'd pull off 8-10 rated performances and clearly be the best player on the pitch. They never constantly looked average with 5's and 6's. Exoneration is the right word. It has to stop.

[Power n Glory]

...and Giroud delivered more relative to his price tag than Ozil ever has...

Also, despite what people said about the Giroud and Ozil partnership, Giroud still remains to be the best partner for Ozil where he picked up the most assists in a season. Ozil hasn't been great at splitting defences with through balls. Despite us all clamoring for that number 9 striker that can also play off the shoulder of a defender, Ozil still hasn't been able to feed our pacey strong strikers. His best weapon for assists are cut backs into the box and crosses. That was bread and butter for Giroud who thrived off poacher one touch strikes when the ball was cut back to him or powering through on headers or scorpion kicks.