Mesut Özil Thread (official!)

[Özim]

Seen on Sky Ballack reckon Ozil hasn't got acceptance from his teammates, he's low on confidence and I must admit I don't like watching other players having a go at him, it's kicking a guy when he's down and I don't personally think it helps a player like him. To me he doesn't look happy and having your teammates having a go isn't going to help that, different players react differently and IMO he doesn't react well to be criticised by his teammates.

To me he seems a bit soft and would benefit more form encouragement from other players etc.

[Letters]

The thing is, be's clearly an outstanding player technically but he's playing poorly right now and what particularly irks me is he didn't put a shift in tonight. The other players are busting a gut against one of the best sides in Europe, down to 10 men and he's just letting players run past him. He's not a defensive player but in that situation you've all got to work. It is understandable that the othere get frustrated with him.

[bunsco]

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.

It's funny how people suddenly forget the whole concept of first season blues for players who had previously played in more technically based leagues.
Yes some hit the floor running but much more often than not , players need a season to adapt.
Ozil, by his standards is in a bit of a slump - but so was Merks for most of last season, now he's arguably one of our players of the season so far...
Ozil - like Bergkamp before him really needs players of a higher footballing intelligence around him to make the most of his ability - take DB10 pre and post 98 to see the massive difference in his resulting effectiveness to the team - I see the same pattern here with Ozil, I mean, he wasn't too shabby with Real Madrid and the National side...

[Ollie the Optimist]

his body language makes it look like he didn't put a shift in but he covered more ground then any bayern player and all of our team bar flamini and one other (think it is koscienly) so he does cover a lot of ground, he isn't a left back either and had to cover. id have taken him off for rosicky not the ox but he's in awful form. think the penalty miss affected him but no excuses. he had to score that

[Özim]

The thing is, be's clearly an outstanding player technically but he's playing poorly right now and what particularly irks me is he didn't put a shift in tonight. The other players are busting a gut against one of the best sides in Europe, down to 10 men and he's just letting players run past him. He's not a defensive player but in that situation you've all got to work. It is understandable that the othere get frustrated with him.

I don't think it's doing us any favours though, when someone is low on confidence having someone screaming at you telling you it's not good enough isn't going to help, he's not the fiery type, he seems to be a player who needs an arm round him to me.

[bunsco]

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.

[Niall_Quinn]

Seen on Sky Ballack reckon Ozil hasn't got acceptance from his teammates, he's low on confidence and I must admit I don't like watching other players having a go at him, it's kicking a guy when he's down and I don't personally think it helps a player like him. To me he doesn't look happy and having your teammates having a go isn't going to help that, different players react differently and IMO he doesn't react well to be criticised by his teammates.

To me he seems a bit soft and would benefit more form encouragement from other players etc.

Ballacks a cunt and worse, a chav. So fuck him.

[Marc Overmars]

He never seems to be substituted when underperforming. Cazorla and others always go off before him.

He needs to be dropped but Wenger will keep persisting with him.

[GP]

He has to, really.

[Power n Glory]

It goes beyond the expectation of a £42m star player now. You put in a shift like that and you'll lose the fans. The missed penalty can be forgiven but when we're a man down and it looks like we're playing with 9 men, you're asking for trouble.

The world would have been watching that game and he's done himself no favours. The scrutiny will get worse and he has to rise above it or crumble. I think Wenger needs to drop him for the next game.