Match Reaction vs Man City (away).

[selassie]

BOBN you know nothing about football do you? He is by far the best #10 in the league, probably even in the world. But if your criteria for being the best is the one who scores most goals, then you will never see Özil be "the best" #10's are all about roaming freely, creating space for your teammates and delivering the assists and you wont find anyone better than Özil for that (its not a coincidence Ramsey are scoring a bunch of goals now). He's hardly settled in our team, the culture and the premier league, but still got 4 goals and 8 assists in 13 games.

Ozil is a great player, a world class player....but to date his performances have been nowhere near up there with the likes of Suarez, Aguero, Rooney or even Ramsey.

Once Ozil settles in I do expect him to be amongst the best performers in PL, but his influence will be more akin to a David Silva or Juan Mata than say Aguero or Suarez. I don't think he will ever be scoring 20+ goals from his advanced position like say Cesc did, but I think he will be way ahead of anybody else on the assists chart.

He does need to be given time, I totally agree with you.

[AFC Leveller]

Ozil is a great player, a world class player....but to date his performances have been nowhere near up there with the likes of Suarez, Aguero, Rooney or even Ramsey.

Once Ozil settles in I do expect him to be amongst the best performers in PL, but his influence will be more akin to a David Silva or Juan Mata than say Aguero or Suarez. I don't think he will ever be scoring 20+ goals from his advanced position like say Cesc did, but I think he will be way ahead of anybody else on the assists chart.

He does need to be given time, I totally agree with you.

Yep. Ozil is a play make first and foremost but he can also chip in with the odd goal or two (his technique is unbelievable).

[Özim]

Ozil is a great player, a world class player....but to date his performances have been nowhere near up there with the likes of Suarez, Aguero, Rooney or even Ramsey.

Once Ozil settles in I do expect him to be amongst the best performers in PL, but his influence will be more akin to a David Silva or Juan Mata than say Aguero or Suarez. I don't think he will ever be scoring 20+ goals from his advanced position like say Cesc did, but I think he will be way ahead of anybody else on the assists chart.

He does need to be given time, I totally agree with you.

I agree with this, just to add to this though I don't think our game maximises Ozil's talents at the moment, he always looks at his best when he's running at defences in counter attacks, if we could find a couple more players with pace (one up front in particular) it would make him more effective.

[BOBN]

BOBN you know nothing about football do you? He is by far the best #10 in the league, probably even in the world. But if your criteria for being the best is the one who scores most goals, then you will never see Özil be "the best" #10's are all about roaming freely, creating space for your teammates and delivering the assists and you wont find anyone better than Özil for that (its not a coincidence Ramsey are scoring a bunch of goals now). He's hardly settled in our team, the culture and the premier league, but still got 4 goals and 8 assists in 13 games.

I had no trouble seeing Zidane as the best. Ronaldinho as the best...

Oh damn I cant include those number 10s because they used to score the biggest goals, in the biggest games.

Maybe Ozil is the best number 10 in the world of the ones who cannot or will not decide games.

[selassie]

I agree with this, just to add to this though I don't think our game maximises Ozil's talents at the moment, he always looks at his best when he's running at defences in counter attacks, if we could find a couple more players with pace (one up front in particular) it would make him more effective.

Yup, I agree with this Zim. I do like Giroud but he needs upgrading, he gets found out in the big games and the sooner we upgrade him with a clinical striker the better.

This team has no problem creating chances, it's just finishing them becomes a problem in the big/tight games.

I think Ozil will thrive a lot more now that Theo is back, Theo might not have the technical ability of many of our Midfielders/wide players...but he is a damn good finisher, the best finisher at the club IMHO.

[JonasTC]

I had no trouble seeing Zidane as the best. Ronaldinho as the best...

Oh damn I cant include those number 10s because they used to score the biggest goals, in the biggest games.

Maybe Ozil is the best number 10 in the world of the ones who cannot or will not decide games.

I'll agree with you that Zidane and Ronaldinho was among the best (its funny you're mentioning those 2 considering nobody knew who they were at the age of 21 and you're hammering Wilshere for not being world class at that age), but Zidane rarely scored goals and only has 4-5 goals vs good teams throughout his career. At the age of 24 Özil already has 4 times as many assists as Zidane had throughout his career and are scoring the same amount of goals pr. season as Zidane did. 50% more assists than Ronaldinho had throughout his entire career.

Both Ronaldinho and Zidane didnt really flourish/perform until they entered their mid 20s (24-25) when they got sold from mid-table teams(bordeaux finished 16th the year Zidane got sold & PSG finished 11th the year Ronaldinho got sold) to big teams (Juventus & Barcelona), thats the age Özil are entering now and he's already performed at a high level for years and are still improving.

[Niall_Quinn]

Oh sorry, I must have misread the part where you said you were wrong to criticise Walcott. Must be somewhere underneath the little digs about him 'owning us' and trying to 'worm' his way out of the club. Does this logic apply to Bendy, Diaby and everyone else?

There isn't anything wrong with criticising a players performance if he has it coming because we'll just able quickly praise them when they get it right. Well, some of us!

No, Ramsey, Wilshere and Diaby => No contract issues any of us are aware of, want to be here. Bendtner and Walcott => Tried to get out, couldn't achieve it. Nothing to do with fighting back from injury. If Ramsey decides he wants a huge contract and starts flirting with Chelsea in the summer, will my attitude towards him change? I would think so.

But it's not the same thing as what happens on the pitch. On the pitch, if they play well I'll say they played well, if they are shite I'll say they are shite. Same goes for Wilshere, Jesus, Mary or Joseph. So of course, there is nothing wrong with criticising a performance. The actual argument doesn't have anything to do with that though.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

[Letters]

I haven't been that critical this season, I actually think we've done pretty well.

We're top of the league and got through a CL group most of us thought we'd struggle to qualify from.
You haven't had much opportunity to be critical. A few bad results and BAM, you're back...

I'm not sure we're coming unstuck, we've had a tough few games and we've struggled a bit in them but we've also had quite a few games this year in which the results have been better than they would have been last year. Even on Saturday we looked good going forward, City had only conceded 2 at home all season before we went there. We were defensively weak but City have scored 35 in 8 home games now, they're pretty much unstoppable although at times we made mistakes which made it easier for them than we should have.

After last season all we could reasonably hope this year was to see improvement, to see we're heading in the right direction. The Ozil signing and the obvious improvement this year have shown that. We're not the finished product but so long as we keep heading in the right direction I'll be content.

I agree with some of what you've said but if anyone expected us to go from a side who struggled to finish 4th to champions in one season then they were deluded.
Right now I'm enjoying the football we're playing far more than last season and have more hope for the future than I've had for a long time. For now, that's enough.

[Power n Glory]

No, Ramsey, Wilshere and Diaby => No contract issues any of us are aware of, want to be here. Bendtner and Walcott => Tried to get out, couldn't achieve it. Nothing to do with fighting back from injury. If Ramsey decides he wants a huge contract and starts flirting with Chelsea in the summer, will my attitude towards him change? I would think so.

But it's not the same thing as what happens on the pitch. On the pitch, if they play well I'll say they played well, if they are shite I'll say they are shite. Same goes for Wilshere, Jesus, Mary or Joseph. So of course, there is nothing wrong with criticising a performance. The actual argument doesn't have anything to do with that though.

What club was Walcott flirting with? How do you feel about Sagna? It would be dumb for anyone to say he's a useless player just because he's unsure of the contract we're offering him and that's the route you went down with Theo. It was stupid.