Mesut coming out of his shell?: Page 13 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Mesut coming out of his shell?

dreamlord

The Mirror)yeah, I know, but they finally said something right) had this to say:

Arsenal fans defend their record signing with vitriol, but he is a peculiar case.

Perhaps it's the loping stride or maybe his awkward gait that makes Mesut Ozil such a curious player to watch. One who walks off the ball and glides on it, and spends much of the game keeping out of sight. Indeed, one press box colleague asked after 22 minutes why Ozil wasn't playing, only to be informed that the German was there - you just need to find him.

That goes for Arsenal too, who use him less than any of their other creators. Ozil touched the ball less than any other player in that Gunners midfield but, when he does, he inevitably creates.

It's not ostentatious creation. It's not flash touches or scooped passes that catch the eye.

But in those few opportunities he gets to influence proceedings, he makes the most impact - providing more key passes than any other Arsenal player against Everton. Not to mention both assists.

He looks kinda funny, and he's not yet justified his price tag, but never let anyone tell you that Ozil doesn't do anything.

Gurgen

He doesn't walk off the ball 😆

He just makes runs for other people than himself, something our other players barely do and something fans inevitably don't notice.

Coombs

The man is always moving. Amazing workrate. Also, he and Sanchez combined multiple times against Everton to press high up the pitch and win the ball. He made 5 or 6 lung-busting runs up the pitch in transition as well, and was more often than not ignored (usually by Sanchez). If we could clone him, not only would there always be someone to pass to but there would also be someone who could make the pass.

Biggest issue is he's not great when he's playing in our own half. Same with Alexis. The fact that our forwards have to do so much in our own half in the first place is part of the problem, though.

It's amazing how what is essentially a question of aesthetics can polarize so many. Alexis and Ozil are both absolutely top, top players who I still can't really believe are on the same pitch for Arsenal. And for both, part of the reason why they excel is because they work extremely hard.

goon

Completely agree.

It's his execution that's lacking more than anything. His passes are often played without pace or are simply not accurate enough. Refining this aspect of his game would go a long way to improving perception.

Still think he needs more movement in front of him to come alive. No coincidence some of his best performances have come with Theo in the side.

Biggus

I think his price tag is a bit of a mill stone, he's a decent player and if he cost 25M no one would bat an eye lid, but at 43M he really should be running games there shouldn't be any caveats he needs this he needs that- He should be grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck not relying on others..
Maybe Man's Utd & City can afford to have a 43M luxury player but we Arsenal fans all know how long we've waited to have a player of this price......

MistaT

He's caviar, when what we needed was a fat steak.

Klaus

He's one world class player when what we needed was a new team. People who thought he'd solve everything need to get real. It's like they have no concept of how average this squad is.

Biggus

This squad is not average it cost a lot of money and it is underachieving.
Instead of ignoring and excusing the problem Klaus if you love Ozil you should be getting behind calls for a proper manager who would bring out the best in him.

Klaus

The squad is bang average and it's an excellent argument for why Wenger might have to go. I've said as much repeatedly. I'm not ignoring anything. I'm just not living in your dream world where everything can be put down to a tactical mistake or an underachieving player, because that's not the reality we're facing.

Biggus

Its not a dream world Klaus, fact is at the top level teams are much of a muchness, games are won or lost on a)tactics b)an individual error.
Players might be out of form or have a bad day be played out of position or even be carrying an injury but much as we fans love to pronounce a player as "shit" no one in a team like Arsenal is average, millions go into their training and devolopment.

Klaus

They're average within the context of a top team, and that's a fact.

y va marquer

Top teams may be much of a muchness Biggus but the ones who win league titles will always have, at a minimum, a better striker than our Giroud, a better goalkeeper than Szcz and a better CB pairing than Kos and Per.

That's why José got himself Costa, that's why Fergie bought Van Persie.
That's why god damn John racist Terry was MOTM yesterday.

Tactics alone do not make the difference at the top, Chelsea proved that from last season to this season.

lorddulaarsenal

Ozil is the best playmaker in the league

Mello

Ozil's main problem is that he plays the game like a forward but he doesn't score many goals.

Claudius

Heard on Arseblog today that Ozil has the 3rd best minutes/assist in Premier League history behind only Reyes (1st) and Fabregas (2nd). We know what happened to them. The fact of the matter is that the football fan needs to understand what Ozil is. He is a playmaker. Imagine John Stockton without Karl Malone to finish off the pick-and-roll. He'd just be another face. Ozil played out of position and then expected to feed Giroud, Welbeck, Oxlade-Chamberlain is exactly the same. He is dependent on the ability of good finishers. If we had Cavani and Griezmann up top, for example, the Ozil discussion would be very different.

Rex

Think that is very harsh on John Stockton. Sure, it helped to play with the Mailman, but he he was a star in his own right.

Clrnc

The game against Everton is a perfect scenario to tell you the stats mean nothing. 2 assist, one from a corner and one pass for a long shot.

He definitely didn't have a good game there despite the 2 assists. Very lackluster running. He does run but he don't put in enough effort to get to end of passes. There were plenty of occasions that required him to sprint for the return ball but he jogged instead and someone got ahead of him.

He is a top class player, but the last 2 games he didn't play well for us nor give us enough.

Bosscielny

If you take any two other players on the field in our last game and combine how many chances they created, it won't add up to more than how many Ozil did alone.

Sounds like he did what he's supposed to do.

ChiliPalmer

Clrnc wrote:
The game against Everton is a perfect scenario to tell you the stats mean nothing. 2 assist, one from a corner and one pass for a long shot.

That's funny because half of Cesc's assists are like that, but people still drool over his 15 assists. Chelsea are great at set pieces with thier defenders scoring most of thier goals lately, and not to mention the easy assists for Hazard's solo goals.

Also the assist for Rosicky was absolutely excellent, long shot or not. Few players have the vision for that pass.

Gunner89

Chili Palmer wrote:
Clrnc wrote:
The game against Everton is a perfect scenario to tell you the stats mean nothing. 2 assist, one from a corner and one pass for a long shot.

That's funny because half of Cesc's assists are like that, but people still drool over his 15 assists. Chelsea are great at set pieces with thier defenders scoring most of thier goals lately, and not to mention the easy assists for Hazard's solo goals.

Also the assist for Rosicky was absolutely excellent, long shot or not. Few players have the vision for that pass.

Not sure what point you're trying to make?

For the 8 years when he was here he didn't get that many assists from corners and he's been pretty much on double figures from assists in the league year-in year-out for 10 years now from 2005. Most of this period was with Adebayor, Bentner or worse. The only periods RVP was relatively injury free 2008-09 and second half of 2010-11 was when Cesc was unfortunately sidelined with long term injuries. Clearly Chelsea being good at set pieces and having other great players shouldn't take anything from how exceptional Cesc is at creating goals. The highest assister in league football in Europe for the last 10 years.

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