Ozil in big away games

Qwiss

jones wrote:
He's been poor all season really. Had a great scoring run but his overall game is nowhere close to last season's form

He's good goalscoring form has glossed over the fact he's been less involved generally.

Rex

He has been less involved IMO because he has focused more on making runs in behind the defense. Basically, he has played higher up the pitch than he did last season, getting himself into the box a lot more. Personally, I quite like what I have seen from Özil this season, and I don't think he has been poor at all. Yesterday was different though, because he was just disappointingly poor. He had two weeks off from football, and I certainly expected a lot more from him.

MistaT

You let him play the international and he may come back fresher or hurt, or you let him have a vacation and he may come back still in vacation mode.

QuincyAbeyie

He scores a few more goals than before, but creates a lot less. We're worse off for it.

yuv

Shady wrote:
He hasn't been poor ffs. He just needs a Cazorla or Xhaka (?) in midfield to take some of the creative burden off him.

That's exactly it.

goon

Ozil needs a 'playmaker' in the team as much as any of the other forwards and that's where we're missing Santiago. Wenger needs to give Xhaka a run.

Rex

Quincy Abeyie wrote:
He scores a few more goals than before, but creates a lot less. We're worse off for it.

As a team we score more goals this season, at least up until this point, so I don't think that argument holds water.

y va marquer

He's missing Cazorla

Rex

We, as a team, miss a functional central midfield. Not the same thing IMO.

QuincyAbeyie

Rex wrote:
Quincy Abeyie wrote:
He scores a few more goals than before, but creates a lot less. We're worse off for it.

As a team we score more goals this season, at least up until this point, so I don't think that argument holds water.

Assuming that everyone else plays exactly the same roles and is as good/bad as last season except Õzil? Sure.

ChiliPalmer

Rex wrote:
We, as a team, miss a functional central midfield. Not the same thing IMO.

Swallow your pride, Rex. You've made 40k posts telling us that Ramsey is better than Cazorla, and what not. At least admit that he's by far our best CM whether he's your typical CM or not.

Since we started playing Santi in CM:

United 1-2 Arsenal

Santi Coq
Ox Özil Alexis
Welbz

Arsenal 3-0 United

Santi Coq
Rambo Özil Alexis
Theo

United 3-2 Arsenal

Coq Ramsey
Welbz Özil Alexis
Theo

United 1-1 Arsenal

Coq Elneny
Theo Özil Rambo
Alexis

Look at our last 4 results against United, with Santi we perform, without him we, simply put, suck.

Coq, Mesut, Alexis played all 4.

Ramsey played 3, in our best game vs them he played RW, in our worst he played CM in a partnership you, Rex, were gloating and murdering Wenger for not trying because it would be soooo good. Yesterday he played LW, where we all knew he would suck, not on him.

Santi however played in our two wins vs them, where he arguably was MOM in both.

Terrific player. Sad to see the ongoing agenda against some of our best players.

Gazza M

im hoping xhaka-ozil can eventually be similar vieira-bergkamp axis. at the moment santi is only one that feeds the ball from deep with quality and consistency. i think there was a recent stat that one of the most efficient passes we play was santi to ozil, and that has vanished since the the little fella has been injured

MistaT

Part of that is down to Santi being good enough and allowed to wiggle out of tight spaces to play a direct, forward ball to Ozil. Coquelin and El Neny don't have that in their locker and its not something most of would be forgiving of if it failed.

Ramsey/Xhaka seem to have the ability to play between the lines a little more though Ramsey struggles with an assortment of other passes and controls.

Clrnc

Still unreal that Santi is such a vital component in our setup. In the last 3 years, periods without him in CM we literally crumble to pieces, especially in big games. Ironically he is also wishlisted by many to be sold last 2 windows or so. Something is missing there.

Ramsey is still such an odd player. Theoretically he has a high ceiling, in reality he is extremely flawed in many aspects of his game. He doesn't consistently specialize in any aspect that makes him outstanding as of now.

No problem with Ozil scoring more but getting less involved in our team. It was only the last 3 games that he is extremely off colour, before that our team was working well.

Klaus

I think Özil has been carrying on well this season myself. There was a small dropoff but it was expected. What Özil did last year was unsustainable. He was magnificent but no player should have that much responsibility for the way we play. It's a weakness in the team.

I think having more players who take responsibility around him has actually benefited him individually this season; he has developed the only thing that was lacking on his repertoire and is now pretty much the complete footballer. We just haven't gotten the team to click quite yet. Maybe if Wenger could avoid sitting on his hands this January window and go out and get us a winger...

Klaus

Speaking of Özil, apparently his goal against Ludogorets wasn't nominated for the Puskas ward.

Edit: Never mind, apparently he missed out because they only consider goals that were scored between September 30 2015 and September 30 2016. He's in pole position for the 2017 award instead.

JazzG

In big away games I think we should go with three CMs. We rarely have any grip in away games, nor we do pose much of a counter attacking threat either. So usually we aren't good enough and don't have enough control either.

Ozil can be pretty effective out wide in these games, has shown that plenty of times in his career.

Rex

Chili Palmer wrote:
Rex wrote:
We, as a team, miss a functional central midfield. Not the same thing IMO.

Swallow your pride, Rex. You've made 40k posts telling us that Ramsey is better than Cazorla, and what not. At least admit that he's by far our best CM whether he's your typical CM or not.

Since we started playing Santi in CM:

United 1-2 Arsenal

Santi Coq
Ox Özil Alexis
Welbz

Arsenal 3-0 United

Santi Coq
Rambo Özil Alexis
Theo

United 3-2 Arsenal

Coq Ramsey
Welbz Özil Alexis
Theo

United 1-1 Arsenal

Coq Elneny
Theo Özil Rambo
Alexis

Look at our last 4 results against United, with Santi we perform, without him we, simply put, suck.

Coq, Mesut, Alexis played all 4.

Ramsey played 3, in our best game vs them he played RW, in our worst he played CM in a partnership you, Rex, were gloating and murdering Wenger for not trying because it would be soooo good. Yesterday he played LW, where we all knew he would suck, not on him.

Santi however played in our two wins vs them, where he arguably was MOM in both.

Terrific player. Sad to see the ongoing agenda against some of our best players.

Good post, Chili! Saw it this morning, wanted to answer properly, been busy all day. 🙂

Chili, pride has nothing to do with it. I happen to rate Ramsey highly, which is no big surprise to anyone on here. I think he has outstanding attributes which I feel come to the fore when he plays in central midfield, but not at all really when played on the flank. However, I have also said that I think he really needs to improve as a central midfielder to become a complete player! On many occasions, when he has had the opportunity to play in central midfield, I have been critical of his performances. Ramsey still has flaws, and I will be the first to admit that! Having said that, I have also been vocal when saying that I don't believe playing him wide is ever going to be the answer. In short, he is a decent player for us playing from the flank, but I don't think he will ever amount to anything else from that position. I also don't for a second believe that Aaron playing on the flank is magically going to make him a better central midfielder one day. Personally, I rate Ramsey so highly that I totally think it is worth it to stick with him as a central midfielder for a full season, warts and all, because I think it would be well worth it in the end.

Cazorla is a great player, he truly is. He is absolutely amazing on the ball. IMO though, he is at best mediocre when we have to defend. Coquelin makes it work with Cazorla though; that cannot be denied. I still think we as a team are at a disadvantage defensively with Cazorla in central midfield! Cazorla and Coquelin are good together, but I feel two more allround players like Xhaka and Ramsey rather than two specialists like Caz and Coq can be even better. Personally, I don't think Ramsey and Coquelin got a proper shot at gelling, but then again Coquelin's weaknesses don't really combine well with Ramsey's weaknesses; perhaps the two of them would have never made it work. Xhaka's skill set, on the other hand, looks to combine really well with what Ramsey has to offer. I'm very excited to see the two of them given an extended run together.

Ramsey isn't playing in central midfield because of Cazorla. In the short term, that may very well have been the best choice. At the same time, I feel that choice has potentially tricked us out of something even better. That's been the basis all the time of my argument of why I have always wanted to see Ramsey played in the middle.

yuv

Different views is fine, but there's one significant point here -
We worry less about defense than last year, and we seem to lose our flow and potency without Cazorla.
And thus far there seems to be no adequate solution.

Klaus

I think it's more about our setup than anything. We need someone to take responsibility and so far Cazorla is the only one who has done so. Xhaka was clearly brought in for a lot of money because last season, with or without Santi, we struggled to get the ball forward from midfield. Özil and Alexis were dropping ridiculously deep to pick up the ball at times to the detriment of the team.

Coquelin was part of the problem back then, and he seems part of the problem right now too; at least to me. Again, this is a problem that I feel is created by Xhaka not performing the way we need him to. The point of having him, and the reason he cost so much, is that you don't need to waste a central midfield spot on someone who can't pass for toffee. Guys with Xhaka's skillset are rare, but it's obvious at this point that there will be an adaptation period. Personally I think Elneny should have played a lot more this season with that in mind.