Ozil - Do we need him?

[Niall_Quinn]

I think you've lost your marbles. Cesc is tippy tappy! He's the original blueprint!

He wasn't when he first broke into the team. But Wenger seized on his abilities and set about constructing the present day nightmare, taking it to a ridiculous extreme.

[Niall_Quinn]

And the original blueprint is the horror of all horrors, Pep's Barcelona. The most boring team ever to play the game.

[Letters]

Present day nightmare!

[Goonermerree]

And I stand by the obvious observation that Cesc was introduced to and played in a much more organised team when Le Crackpot still retained some of his marbles. A younger Cesc would struggle mightily in the tippy tappy hell that has been built over the last few seasons. Then again, so would Messi. So would anyone. It really doesn't matter who was or is better. All that matters is we get rid of the idiot who is an anchor dragging on every player that wears the shirt.

Who would you want in?

[Power n Glory]

You seriously must just shut your eyes when Ozil gets the ball.

A younger Cesc would struggle mightily in the tippy tappy hell

On that statement alone, you shouldn't talk. That whole 'tippy tappy' saying comes from our poor implementation of Barca's tika tika system. We changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 because of Cesc.

We've had discussions about this before and you have no idea what we're doing half the time. It's 'tippy tappy' when we lose or haven't scored yet but if we carve a team open with our passes, you talk as if there has been a change in tactics.

[selassie]

Yep, still stand by Cesc being the better player. Midweek games sum it up.

I'll probably get slaughtered for this but I agree PnG.

Ozil is a great player but when the battle is on and things get a little physical he goes into hiding. Cesc wasn't ever like that.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

On that statement alone, you shouldn't talk. That whole 'tippy tappy' saying comes from our poor implementation of Barca's tika tika system. We changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 because of Cesc.

We've had discussions about this before and you have no idea what we're doing half the time. It's 'tippy tappy' when we lose or haven't scored yet but if we carve a team open with our passes, you talk as if there has been a change in tactics.

Again i agree (and made the point about half hour ago). I think the tika takka system is a kind of death by a thousand cuts and it can be frustrating to watch. I do think however that actually when we do score or look good more often than not it's more a mixture of pace and direct passing (the way for instance we took west ham and basel apart on the counter attack). It's not to say short passing movements don't work for us as well (the best example i can think of is the second goal against chelsea which was pure tikka takka). But often when we are pressed we regress to short sideways passing and keep ball which has very little in the way of penetration....employing pace on the wings has given us a bit more dimension though.

[Goonermerree]

We were walking around Everton's box a lot on Tuesday, then sideways passing. I just gives the opposition confidence, it puts them in their comfort zone and they can defend that all day long. A few counters with attempts n goal and they are up for it. Everton were all over the place for the first 15 mins or so and we were playing with pace and more direct passing. I think we send ourselves to sleep sometimes and before we know it, we're chasing the game.

[Letters]

We were walking around Everton's box a lot on Tuesday, then sideways passing. I just gives the opposition confidence, it puts them in their comfort zone and they can defend that all day long. A few counters with attempts n goal and they are up for it. Everton were all over the place for the first 15 mins or so and we were playing with pace and more direct passing. I think we send ourselves to sleep sometimes and before we know it, we're chasing the game.

Only Liverpool have scored more than us though and we've only lost twice. We're not doing that much wrong.

[Goonermerree]

Only Liverpool have scored more than us though and we've only lost twice. We're not doing that much wrong.

Maybe if we played with a bit more pace, we could have beaten Everton, then we would be second and only 3 points behind Chelsea. It's important to keep on their tails. I don't think we'll win the league, but it would be nice to give a good challenge.