Mesut Özil Thread (official!)

[Power n Glory]

The media is a 7 day event, one week they'll say one thing and the next they are entirely happy to contradict themselves on every "sensational" point they previously "exclusively" revealed. It's a shitty hype factory designed to attract attention, not discuss football in a meaningful way. It's unedifying to see the fans chasing after each hot topic shit out by the media whores. They are into Ozil right now because he cost £40mill, that's the whole thrust of their story. I'd rather be thinking about where we went wrong as a team and how we can fix that, rather than looking at fantasy quick-fixes such as making a scapegoat of Ozil. Why did Liverpool rip the defence apart almost at will? Because of Ozil? The media is expert at taking the complexity out of everything and reducing it to simple concepts that focus around celebrity rather than substance. You've listened to those asshole journos on Sunday Supplement I suppose? Fucking arseholes, change their tune every 5 minutes and do it with a frank and self satisfied expression on thri faces as if they know shit about shit. They know how to flog chip wrappers, that's it, there's nothing more to see or learn from them.

You need to get over the media paranoia and just read some of the analysis. You'd understand part of the reason why Liverpool ripped through us if you read what was said or just watched his performance on the pitch. I've been saying for a while that Ozil is under performing and it would soon come under the spotlight. It's not just from what I've read last week.

His positioning, lack of defence work and reluctance to take on his man are some of the key points discussed in some these articles. It's worth discussing whether he needs a player like Rosicky supporting him in the middle for all the times he floats to the flanks and into the final third. If you look at the daily mail chart, it shows the hot spots where he receives the ball and the fact that he only received the ball 4 times in our own half of the pitch. I've noticed that a lot and part of his game is to leave the centre and float to the flanks to receive the ball. With Jack pushing up field and never looking to anchor the centre it leaves a gaping hole. We need a central figure to just control the tempo, put in a solid defence shift but support the attack. With Ramsey out injured, Rosicky could be that guy.

Or maybe we shift Ozil out to the right and get Cazorla playing in the middle. I don't know. But Ozil looks to be struggling and we're not getting the best out of him. He needs to step his game up in a major way and it may also help to try different players in positions.

[Marc Overmars]

Need some movement to get the best out of Mesut Hleb, at Madrid he had a wave of players who would make runs for him, but here has fuck all. Now I'm not excusing his apparent lazy approach, but his key skill is passing and an assister is only as good as the player who makes the run for him.

[Niall_Quinn]

I read them and anyone who thinks pointing out the lack of substance in the media is paranoia is really reaching. Main thing I noticed about the DM over the last couple of days is their hilarious "Where's Ozil?" graphic. Sophisticated, informative, a display of their boundless expertise. Sagna and Monreal should drop Ozil a few quid for taking the heat, so should either Wenger or Bould, whoever is responsible for the defensive strategy on Saturday. And the main guys in the middle for barely showing up. And Giroud for being static. And so on. Ozil was what, 1/11 of the problem? But the hysteria gets inflated with the transfer fee, so swap him for Rosicky and suddenly everything falls into place. Simple solutions.

[Özim]

Need some movement to get the best out of Mesut Hleb, at Madrid he had a wave of players who would make runs for him, but here has fuck all. Now I'm not excusing his apparent lazy approach, but his key skill is passing and an assister is only as good as the player who makes the run for him.

He's a great runner with the ball, if you look back at Germany in 2010 you could see just how good he was at that, running at speed with the ball and delivering pinpoint passes is his strength, when you have a team who move the ball as slowly as we do and who's idea of running is a 5 yard jog forward you start to see the problem.

He's a quality player, but if your going to play in a way that nullify's his strengths it was kinda pointless signing him in the 1st place.

[Penguin]

Yeah I agree with Marc and Ozim. I've been saying from day one that we aren't making the most out of Ozil and that we are wasting his best talent - his vision and passing. For Real Madrid and Germany they counter with pace, get the ball to Ozil early and have two or three runners busting a gut to get forward beyond the lines. That's the situation that Ozil excels in and where he's most dangerous. He didn't get the title 'assist king' for nothing, and that was in the same league as Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc.

Now look at how he plays for us and you'll see that whenever he gets the ball the opponents have already got men back because our build up is so slow. And even when we do get a good counter attacking opportunity there's nobody to pass to because we have a sluggish Giroud upfront, who always moves towards the ball rather than behind the defence anyway, Cazorla on the left who is often behind Ozil or drifting somewhere in the central areas, leaving only one target (usually in Theo) which makes it predictable and easier to defend against. I like Ox and Gnabry but they dont offer the same threat in behind as Theo. It's even worse when Wenger dumps Wilshere/Ramsey/Rosicky out wide.

I'm not making excuses for Ozil who has been well below par. But it's annoying to see us throw £42m on a player and not even make the most of him. It's like Stoke buying Messi only to long ball to him all game.

[AFC Leveller]

Yeah I agree with Marc and Ozim. I've been saying from day one that we aren't making the most out of Ozil and that we are wasting his best talent - his vision and passing. For Real Madrid and Germany they counter with pace, get the ball to Ozil early and have two or three runners busting a gut to get forward beyond the lines. That's the situation that Ozil excels in and where he's most dangerous. He didn't get the title 'assist king' for nothing, and that was in the same league as Xavi, Iniesta and Cesc.

Now look at how he plays for us and you'll see that whenever he gets the ball the opponents have already got men back because our build up is so slow. And even when we do get a good counter attacking opportunity there's nobody to pass to because we have a sluggish Giroud upfront, who always moves towards the ball rather than behind the defence anyway, Cazorla on the left who is often behind Ozil or drifting somewhere in the central areas, leaving only one target (usually in Theo) which makes it predictable and easier to defend against. I like Ox and Gnabry but they dont offer the same threat in behind as Theo. It's even worse when Wenger dumps Wilshere/Ramsey/Rosicky out wide.

I'm not making excuses for Ozil who has been well below par. But it's annoying to see us throw £42m on a player and not even make the most of him. It's like Stoke buying Messi only to long ball to him all game.

Agree.

Im not Maureen's biggest fan but he was Ozil's manager for 3 years and he showed how to get the best out of him.Our current players like Cazorla, Giroud, Jack and even the Ox now dont make any runs and want it to feet.

Today will be another tight game i expect and unless we change things up, we'll see the same frsutrating slow football on show.

[selassie]

Need a big game from Mesut tonight, all the eyes will be on him given the slating he has got from the media recently.

At the very least I hope he improves his physical game, I really don't like the way he gets pushed off the ball so easily, that's one of my main gripes with him.

[Darknight02]

He's a great runner with the ball, if you look back at Germany in 2010 you could see just how good he was at that, running at speed with the ball and delivering pinpoint passes is his strength, when you have a team who move the ball as slowly as we do and who's idea of running is a 5 yard jog forward you start to see the problem.

He's a quality player, but if your going to play in a way that nullify's his strengths it was kinda pointless signing him in the 1st place.

Completely agree with this and Penguin and Marc.

Whilst when you get an opportunity to sign someone like this you absolutely can't turn it down.

But in the summer I was really hoping we'd sign Di Maria or another pacey flank player.

We have adequate players like Santi and Rosicky who can deliver a ball. And this season Ramsey's passing and vision have also been sublime.

Wenger compounded this problem in January not going for a winger.

Gnabry and Ox are both pacey but you look at both and you think they are more comfortable bursting through the middle than out wide from the flanks. And the problem that does to Ozil is that there are suddenly too many players in through the center for him to do anything about it.

Perfect example where his strength lies is Podolski's goal against Coventry. Not too sure many playmakers can be that quick with little space to time that pass to perfection to Podolski. But Ozil can.

Unfortunately biggest disappointment is that we are ridiculously unbalanced at the moment.

I hope Wenger can get it right.

[Darknight02]

Reading through this, it seems to be undeniable that fitness is likely to be the key issue here and it really does make sense. For those of us wondering where have those ridiculous balanced, controlled and precision runs disappeared to - here is possibly the answer?

I'm pretty sure AW will rest him for Saturday.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...is-ozil-fading

Amid the excitement that greeted his August arrival, Mesut Ozil felt like more than just another player. Here was a symbol of Arsenal's cash-rich future. This was a signing to sweep away the gloom of that opening day defeat to Aston Villa and carry the Gunners into the heart of a genuine title race. So it is somehow appropriate that Ozil's waning form should be intertwined with the team's fading dream of topping the Premier League table.

Things could hardly have started better with Ozil a conspicuously transformative figure in Arsenal's turnaround. An assist on debut at Sunderland was followed by two more on his home bow. Indeed, the seven chances created in that performance against Stoke remains the most by anyone at the Emirates Stadium so far this season. The German was widely regarded as the catalyst for a fine run of form that saw Arsenal win six and draw one of his first seven Premier League games for the club.

Wenger eyes response

Of course, statistics only tell part of the story. To see Ozil in action is art not science. Ballet, poetry, take your pick. There is the sublime touch and expert weight of pass. The serene movements as he glides around the pitch, barely seeming to leave an imprint on the turf. But the rhythm is not flowing as it once did. The end-product of goals and assists is proving a chore rather than an inevitable consequence of his brilliance. The question that needs answering is simple: "Why?"

Perhaps the starting point of the search for an explanation comes from looking back to Ozil's three-year stay at Real Madrid. The former Werder Bremen playmaker was a popular figure at the Bernabeu with supporters so incensed by talk of his sale that calls for him to stay at the club were even a feature of Gareth Bale's stage-managed welcoming party. Cristiano Ronaldo was candid in his belief that Ozil's exit would be a bad thing for both him and the team, while Jose Mourinho has been effusive in his praise of the player's efforts in the Spanish capital: The best No 10 in the world.

Negatives

And yet, while Ozil's status as a world-class player is not in dispute, there is a danger in airbrushing out the negatives. For all the talk of England's island mentality and suspicion of things from abroad, there is also a wide-eyed wonder when genuine superstars arrive on these shores. But to paint his time at Real as an unqualified success and his relationship with Mourinho as wholly positive, would be inaccurate. In fact, that was simply not the case.

Ozil endured a difficult start to the 2012/13 season at the Bernabeu, with his place under threat following the arrival of Luka Modric from Tottenham. Accused of being on the periphery of games when things weren't going to plan, he suffered the ignominy of being substituted at half time against Sevilla, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Betis in late 2012. When he did remain on the field, there was a tendency to fade late on in games and he rarely seemed in peak physical condition.
Fitness

Fitness is at the heart of this issue. "I can't believe there are players aged 23, 24, 25 or 26 who are unable to play twice in four days," Mourinho complained last season as relations with his Real Madrid players became particularly fraught. Ozil is unlikely to have been far from his thoughts. For all his qualities, like many precious things in this life, the attacking midfielder was a fragile creature. Perhaps that goes some way to explaining why he has become a fading force at Arsenal.

It is perfectly understandable why Arsene Wenger should have been tempted to race his prize stallion rather harder than Mourinho had elected to in Madrid. With Arsenal leading the way for much of the winter, the veteran boss has not felt in a position to subject his £42million signing to the squad rotation process. As a result, despite the assertion that Ozil has played 35 matches for club and country compared to 32 this time last season, that particular comparison is skewed.

Minutes rather than appearances are the currency that players' bodies must deal in. Ozil played 2036 of them in La Liga last season but has already racked up 1855 league minutes this time around. Crucially, he has played the full 90 minutes on 11 occasions for Arsenal so far this Premier League season. That's something he was never asked to do in any one of his three years under Mourinho at Real Madrid.

As a consequence, Ozil looks to be struggling. The physical demands of the Premier League are known to be significant and the Germany international is facing them for the first time. Unlike every other campaign of his career, there is no winter break to provide respite and a World Cup in Brazil looms large. The Opta tracking data that analyses distances covered as well as the speed and frequency of players' sprints, reveals a startling downturn in Ozil's high-intensity activity.

Back in October when Ozil scored twice in a 4-1 win over Norwich, the tracking data shows that he made 67 sprints during the game. In early November, he hit new heights with 71 sprints in a 2-0 home win over Liverpool that put the Gunners five points clear at the top of the Premier League table. However, Arsenal were beaten next time out against Manchester United and things haven't looked quite so rosy since. Ozil has not performed 50 sprints in a match since that Liverpool game.

Most alarmingly of all, the trend continues. Since Boxing Day, Ozil has not produced more than 40 sprints in a match with his tally of 27 in 84 minutes against Crystal Palace representing a new low. Against Liverpool on Saturday, he sprinted just 22 times before being substituted shortly after the hour mark. "He didn't have the best of games, but that can happen," said Wenger. "He works very hard to adapt to the physical level of the Premier League."

In truth, Ozil's overall distance covered in matches has remained at broadly similar levels. However, it is those intense runs at speed that are needed - both forward and back - to create the space when attacking or track the runner when defending. They are the movements that make the difference and they are precisely the ones that can become less frequent when a player is suffering from fatigue.
Questions

Suddenly new questions arise. Is there an attitude problem? What about that body language? How useful are 'assists per 90 minutes' stats when you can't complete a full game? Comments from the past can be revisited. "I think I know how to try to stop him being in the game for 90 minutes, with 90 minutes of direct influence on the match," said Mourinho in December. "Isco and Ozil have to learn how to defend. They must work defensively," said Carlo Ancelotti in the Autumn.

And yet, Ozil remains the same player and at 25 this should surely be regarded as a lull rather than anything approaching decline. The great players who thrill and delight should be cherished. Like the lover put on a pedestal, now Arsenal fans are getting the warts-and-all version. To misquote Marilyn Monroe, if you can't handle him at his worst, then you don't deserve him at his best. After all, as the evidence suggests, maybe Mesut Ozil just needs a rest?

[JonasTC]

I think Özil's performances are down to the players he have around him and the slow playstyle we for some reason have implemented, as many of you have already pointed out, Walcott is the only one that really fits together with Özil (and ofc he's dead in his first season here).

But as bad as many people call him out, he's still keeping up his average from his Madrid days. I just think people expected him to be the new jesus and therefor has been dissapointed in him. I have no doubt he will become a dominant figure for us, i just think he has to adjust to that role and it takes time, in Madrid he had dominant players around him and all he had to do was make awesome passes all day long.

I think we should all get behind him and support him, everything else will just work against him