Ozil - Do we need him?

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

And the ridiculously underrated Gilberto plus, choke, Cashley Cole.

Mind you, I can go back to Liam Brady. Genius. Pat Jennings was a great keeper from a time of great keepers.

Bit before my time that, was born in 83

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Sorry, but that's almost as silly as suggesting Ozil isn't needed. Freddie was a superb player. His misfortune was he played at a time when we had genuine, world beating legends at the club.

I'm sorry just don't see it, apart from goals his overall contribution to our game was average

For me in Ramsey I see another Ljungberg, has great little goal scoring patches where he seems indispensable but apart from that you wonder why he's in the team.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Haven't lost with him this season tbf.

[Power n Glory]

It's not like playing Walcott up front where sometimes it's hard to know what is his best position, there doesn't seem to be any question with Sanchez, it's not just like he's a striker who drifts from that position when he plays up front it looks every inch that we are playing without a striker, it looked that way last night until Giroud came on.

It's not a criticism of Sanchez, there just doesn't appear to be any indication he can play there and certainly not in a formation with three central midfielders and two wide players.

Could he play behind a second striker? Maybe....but to be honest we give away too much space in the middle of the park with three midfielders in the middle, let alone with two.

To be honest it seems like you are desperate to try incorporating a system in order to not play Ozil.

There isn't anything personal against Ozil. It's question of style and tactics. How can we get the best out of him with what we have and I think people overestimate his importance. We may be looking at the last days of the lone striker. The type Ozil needs to succeed here, we might not have and is not available on the market.

Walcott up front divides opinion and I doubt we'll see him play there again unless injuries permit it. But Walcott has had games where he's looked anonymous up front but then over the next couple of games looks explosive and like he's adapting. But let's phase him out of the debate.

It's early days for Perez, but from what I saw on Saturday is similar to what I've seen of Sanchez. Dropping deep, drifting wide and really struggling to get into the game. It's a worry that Wenger hooked him after an hour and the next game went with Alexis. I kind of have the feeling we'll have the same sort of problems with Perez because he'd have similar habits when playing up front. I'm really not sure how patient Wenger and the fans will be if he has the same sort of problems.

Which brings us back to having to play Giroud. That's like driving down a dead end again. We've seen Giroud flop so many times and I don't think he works particular well with Ozil. It seems pointless going through another season to see if it works. I don't want to see it unless we're playing with Sanchez or Perez off him. Not Ozil because we've seen how stale that gets. I'll leave out the debate about Ozil needing to get more goals. I'll accept that he's not a goal scorer. But I think we have a problem on our hands if a more mobile and pacey strike force still produces these stale performances.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I understand your concern in that respect, but my argument is if you play Xhaka and Ozil you have a guarantee of the ball being recycled quickly from our own box into the final third that much quicker.

Therefore if Perez and Sanchez both play, one can drift wide and one can take up a more central position and it could be interchangeable like if Walcott and Sanchez were playing there.

[Power n Glory]

What you're not seeing is Ozil playing with Henry and Pires and Freddie and the gang. Instead it's Bif, Walnut, and the square peg, round hole Alexis. Of course there's going to be an immense difference in the end result. But surely don't take from that the idea Ozil is deficient, surely take from it the degree by which the manager has let the general standards at this club fall. Ozil has moved from the pinnacle in Spain to a PL team in shocking decline in terms of quality, but still he delivers the best numbers in Europe. If he's not remarkable in your book then nobody can be, because he tops them all when it comes to doing his job - assisting goal scorers and creating scoring chances. What more can be asked of him? You say he needs to shoot more. Why? What the fuck are our strikers up to if we are relying on our playmaker to do the shooting?

You still haven't answered where Ozil would fit in a Diego Simeone set up.

I prefer Kevin De Bruyne. That's the influence I expect from a AM.

[Niall_Quinn]

There isn't anything personal against Ozil. It's question of style and tactics. How can we get the best out of him with what we have and I think people overestimate his importance. We may be looking at the last days of the lone striker. The type Ozil needs to succeed here, we might not have and is not available on the market.

Walcott up front divides opinion and I doubt we'll see him play there again unless injuries permit it. But Walcott has had games where he's looked anonymous up front but then over the next couple of games looks explosive and like he's adapting. But let's phase him out of the debate.

It's early days for Perez, but from what I saw on Saturday is similar to what I've seen of Sanchez. Dropping deep, drifting wide and really struggling to get into the game. It's a worry that Wenger hooked him after an hour and the next game went with Alexis. I kind of have the feeling we'll have the same sort of problems with Perez because he'd have similar habits when playing up front. I'm really not sure how patient Wenger and the fans will be if he has the same sort of problems.

Which brings us back to having to play Giroud. That's like driving down a dead end again. We've seen Giroud flop so many times and I don't think he works particular well with Ozil. It seems pointless going through another season to see if it works. I don't want to see it unless we're playing with Sanchez or Perez off him. Not Ozil because we've seen how stale that gets. I'll leave out the debate about Ozil needing to get more goals. I'll accept that he's not a goal scorer. But I think we have a problem on our hands if a more mobile and pacey strike force still produces these stale performances.

You're micro analysing pointlessness. We don't have a style, or a system and we won't have one while the current manager is here. And the current manager won't do a single thing to fine tune the team to the individuals in it. And thank fuck, in a way, because the last time he did it when he put everything in orbit around Fabregas he irreparably destroyed our game.

However, once Wenger fucks off, then everything you are saying suddenly becomes relevant, for all players and all positions.

[Xhaka Can’t]

Has anyone said 'sell him, he's shit' yet?

[Niall_Quinn]

You still haven't answered where Ozil would fit in a Diego Simeone set up.

I prefer Kevin De Bruyne. That's the influence I expect from a AM.

Eh? I assumed we were just ignoring questions. This started when I asked you who you'd replace Ozil with, which you answered with a question. And now I STILL haven't answered?

Come off it. I never mentioned Simeone either, although if we could land him I'd be chuffed. I don't know where Simeone would play Ozil, how could I know that. But I'd have Ozil behind Alexis and Lewandowski if it was up to me. You need that quality (and intelligent) striker to see the best of Ozil. De Brown isn't fit to clean Ozil's boots, but right now he plays in a team with a proper manager and that makes all the difference. Thank fuck Pep doesn't have Ozil at his disposal, that would be scary.

[Niall_Quinn]

Has anyone said 'sell him, he's shit' yet?

Sell him he's shit yet.