Ozil is a class act but let's not go ovadatop

Fabregas was getting goals and assists in buckets at his best

Van Persie was hands down the best player in the league at his best

Both have proven themselves as good, or even better than Ozil.

I don't trust Klaus to be objective about Ozil, just as I don't trust Rex to be objective about Giroud.

I remember that, after the Olympiakos game

He was fucking dreadful that game to be fair. Still a silly idea but the reaction was somewhat understandable

Not really, it's one thing if it was a prolonged period of poor form but he had been playing really well for about 6 months prior, so after one or even two dreadful games that reaction was well over the top. It's not like it was criticism directed at that performance, there were questions on his role here and suggestions that he should be dropped or worse yet, sold.

He surpasses Cesc for me although it's hard to be objective about the latter, but isn't better than Bergkamp.

He was incredible.

Klaus wrote:

No one's objective. It's just one of those bullshit things people say when they want to dismiss someone's opinion. You think differently; that's fine. I didn't base my opinion on goals and assists, nor on what other people think of him. Around this time last year a majority of our fans would happily have sold him for peanuts.

I'm not dismissing your opinion, or anyone else's.. Just taking it with a pinch of cinammon is all. We all have our favorites no doubt, but even on the couple of occasions when Ozil was playing poorly in his first season here (due to having not yet adapted to the physical nature of the league) you always praised him to the highest heavens regardless.

I think he's great, has stepped up his game to another level and that showed last season. 

But, he hasn't been as good as van Persie was for us at his best. And Fabregas was at least as good as he has been (passing and intelligence wise at least ). Ozil is a better dribbler 

goon wrote:

Not really, it's one thing if it was a prolonged period of poor form but he had been playing really well for about 6 months prior, so after one or even two dreadful games that reaction was well over the top. It's not like it was criticism directed at that performance, there were questions on his role here and suggestions that he should be dropped or worse yet, sold.

He didn't have one or two dreadful games, pretty sure his poor form lasted longer than that. And the questions are reasonable as until this day we're not utilising him properly; even if he did evolve from the final ball merchant he was at Real to a better and more complete player his bread and butter is still untapped with the way we're setting the team up i.e. Giroud up front

Not to say the notion of selling him isn't silly by the way. Just that it's understandable and that virtually every other player in the squad got a lot more stick way earlier during their respective slumps

Rohit wrote:

He surpasses Cesc for me although it's hard to be objective about the latter, but isn't better than Bergkamp.

He was incredible.

Pretty much how I see it too, for a couple of reasons. I think Bergkamp was at least as good on the ball as Özil is; his first touch was flawless, he controlled the ball at speed like a boss, and he manipulated the ball extremely well. Özil is class at all of this as well, but I don't think he is better than Bergkamp at it. Ozil's movement on the pitch is better than Bergkamp's was, hands down. When it comes to passing, I think Özil shades it, but only by a fraction; Bergkamp was a genius in his own right when it comes to timing, pass selection and execution. The deciding factor for me is this; they occupy roughly the same space on the pitch, but Bergkamp was a top class striker. Bergkamp was way superior when it comes to everything that has to do with goal scoring, such as shooting, composure, positioning in the box, getting into goal scoring positions. I absolute love Özil, and the day we signed him was for me like Christmas when I was a kid. Bergkamp, however, was a more complete attacking player than Özil is.

dreamlord wrote:

Ricky1985 wrote:

He's the best attacker I've seen play for Arsenal since Henry, Bergkamp and Pires. He's a level above Fabregas and van Persie, even at their best, for me.

An attacker who doesn't score goals? Wot. He's the best creative player in the list, but I wouldn't put him above Fabregas and RvP as an attacker, both of whom were able to combine creating and scoring.

I am not prepared to go into the debate of whether Ozil is the best attacking player we have since Henry as it is hard to justify without goals, but this is a good article on how effective Ozil's ability to find space help his team. These are little things that our eyes don't normally tell us but statistic shows us the bigger picture. Article also mentioned Xhaka's passing ability.

Mesut Ozil's ability to find space in the opposition half as an outlet to teammates was equally remarkable. Passes to the German playmaker took out 63 players per game on average. This is the kind of insight that traditional statistics didn't provide; Ozil's passing skills were well-known, but his movement perhaps wasn't as valued.

"Ozil enables you to get the ball past players," Reinartz said. "He's the best in the world between the lines... that's why he's an automatic starter under any coach even if the public don't always appreciate him. I believe the importance of attacking players as pass recipients is the greatest insight we have gathered over the last couple of years."

http://www.espnfcasia.com/german-bundesliga/10/blog/post/2915634/stefan-reinartz-new-metric-packing-helps-us-understand-effective-passing

"Passes to the German playmaker took out 63 players per game on average"

What does that mean??

Please explain.

Thanks.

His movement between the lines and the subsequent passes to him.

Ozil is awesome but not as good as Bergkamp, who was one of the best players out there.

He is however the best passer and the most tactically aware player I've ever seen play for us. He knows exactly where he needs to be all the time. He also knows where everyone else should be and when they aren't there it pisses him off.

flobaba wrote:

"Passes to the German playmaker took out 63 players per game on average"

What does that mean??

Are you serious?

Sniper passes. That's why teams need large squads these days.

Gurgen wrote:

flobaba wrote:

"Passes to the German playmaker took out 63 players per game on average"

What does that mean??

Are you serious?

Yep. 

Rex wrote:

Sniper passes. That's why teams need large squads these days.

:boris:

In 2015/16 Ozil has created a record 144 chances for his Arsenal team mates, putting him top of the all-time Premier League list.

If we had some stone cold killers in front of goal there'd be no doubts about Ozil being on of the all time Arsenal greats.