Arsenal v Man City EPL Match Reaction

[AFC Leveller]

Ozil has been one of our worst players since March. He looks lazy, lethargic and nothing like his old self. Yes he is playing out of position but his performances for the last 5 or 6 months have been way below par and he should be benched.


WTF is Wenger doing playing him out wide? we have Podolski, Ox, Santi and Sanchez who can all play wide and play well but this weird frenchman keeps holding us bakc with his crappy selections and tactics.

Jack was terrific, Sanchez too and Welbeck looks quality.

[Power n Glory]

It's not the price tag, it's the position he plays and the level we expect at Arsenal.

He's an attacking midfield player that isn't having a major impact on the way we play. He's hardly ever had a game like we saw from Wilshere today even when playing in his favoured number 10 position. We've seen Cazorla really flourish when playing the number 10 and looking dangerous. We seen the damage Cesc does....Ozil hasn't come close to replicating that level in his favoured position. Napoli is probably the closest it gets.

We've seen the very best playing the number 10 from Bergkamp to Cesc. Ozil could have been signed for £16m and that wouldn't change how I view his performances. It's just not what I'm used to seeing from attacking midfield players.

[Power n Glory]

I see it the other way around. I think people are expecting more of him because of the price tag. He wouldn't be getting this level of criticism or scrutiny (especially from the media) otherwise.

Also, it's accepted there weren't many good performances out there. Monreal, Kos and Merts, Ramsey, Flamini...they weren't at the races today. But one mention of Ozil and we get more people flying to his defence as if we're not seeing something.

[Munchies]

If I'm honest I really wouldn't mind taking a hit on Ozil and getting in that long coveted CDM.

Rosicky has to start playing some games too

If we were to sell Ozil, I think we could get around £30m from a PSG

[Marc Overmars]

Also, it's accepted there weren't many good performances out there. Monreal, Kos and Merts, Ramsey, Flamini...they weren't at the races today. But one mention of Ozil and we get more people flying to his defence as if we're not seeing something.

Agreed. He is obviously very talented but has shown himself to be a passenger more times than he has an effective player for this team.

I'm not sure he's even reached Hleb's level for us yet, he had a similar role and style of play but he managed to manifest that more in the team he played in.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

In general, I think we're too passive and ball watch even in normal play. I don't get why we allow teams to have so much space when defending deep. When we don't pressure the ball carrier, we're at their mercy and just have to hope they don't deliver the right pass. It's really bad. Sanchez is the only guy that really puts pressure on defenders and it's probably because he's so used to playing with Barca.

No i agree, we don't close down and press enough...i am not even sure it's part of a tactical game plan i think too many of our players are not disciplined enough when not in posession.

[She Wore A Yellow Ribbon]

Jose must be pissing himself seeing novice Wenger rot Ozil on the left when he managed to turn him into the best number 10 in the world.

[Power n Glory]

No i agree, we don't close down and press enough...i am not even sure it's part of a tactical game plan i think too many of our players are not disciplined enough when not in posession.

They're not at the races. We had the same tactics last season, defend deep, zonal marking on corners but I
don't think the concentration is there.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Agreed. He is obviously very talented but has shown himself to be a passenger more times than he has an effective player for this team.

I'm not sure he's even reached Hleb's level for us yet, he had a similar role and style of play but he managed to manifest that more in the team he played in.

Well i think because he's our maquis signing in terms of transfer expenditure it's hard to accept that so many of his performances are so poor. The brass tax is that for a player of his reputation he hasn't come close to stamping his authority on the big games the way he should. I don't actually blame Wenger for this either, the guy is just lazy....you can tell he has it in his locker to eviscerate teams with the range and quality of his passing but he shirks away from the responsibility.
I don't believe it's because our style of play doesn't suit him either, i don't think Real Madrid under Mourinho were set up that differently from how we are.
On the flip side there is a tendency for the media to be overly critical of him, his performances were constantly panned in the World Cup when actually aside from Algeria (and no German player particurlarly performed well in that game) i thought he had a good tournament. I think the expectation though is that he should be the star performer in that side, but considering Germany have so many star performers he is not going to stand out like he might have done four years ago.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

They're not at the races. We had the same tactics last season, defend deep, zonal marking on corners but I
don't think the concentration is there.

True but i don't think playing that deep suits us, we didn't score anywhere near as many goals as liverpool or city and i don't think it was purely because they had better attacking options...it was because we used to defend deep and then play in front of teams rather than winning the ball in the middle of the park and going for the jugular.